the audience applauded

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

--As spoken by Lieutenant Rogers. That was the one line in "Bridge To Hell" that stuck out in this no-budget WWII action flick. I watched it one day when I was off on one of the movie channels, whose theme of the day was World War II action flicks. It was very cheesy, and the storyline was very loose, the characters all seemed like they came straight out of a comic book; and it had scenes that went nowhere. However, I found the Yugoslavian setting and the plot device of Yugoslav partisan activity during the war years very interesting, which is not something often seen by US audiences. Then again, knowing Umberto Lenzi's work, I sort of knew what to expect. So if you are looking for historical accuracy, technical accuracy, great casting and acting, and a great storyline, look elsewhere; but if you just want cartoonish combat action and lots of explosions, with the added bonus of seeing some lovely Bosnian scenery, you've come to the right place!

Bridge to Hell (1986) ** (out of 4) Italian WWII film has three Allied POWs trying to make it across Yugoslavia to safe lines in Italy but along their journey they learn about a treasure being hid from Nazis so they decide to steal it themselves. The story is rather weak and director Lenzi seems to forget what the actual story is at times because the movie is constantly going off in different directions and we get scenes that don't appear to have anything to do with the actual story. Just take a look at one sequence where a bunch of guard dogs show up for no apparent reason unless that said reason ended up on the cutting room floor. The film was obviously done on a very cheap budget as there's very little here that would make you think that you were actually watching a war movie. We do get a couple big battle scenes with a lot of explosions and gun fire but it all looks rather cheap. We also get the mandatory plane crash, quick edit of pilots jumping out and then quick edit of an explosion. The entire movie is pretty much built around stealing this treasure but this too never really gets resolved and by the time the end credits start you wonder if you're missing something or if the production simply ran out of money. Lenzi had pr oven himself to be a good director but he doesn't really do much here as we get no style, no clear story being told and worse of all is that there are many times when the movie just drags along. None of the lead actors are all that good and it doesn't help that the dubbing is rather bad.

Umberto Lenzi war film about three POWs who escape from a camp in Yugoslavia and end up getting hooked up with Partisans. First they put their flying skill to use flying biplanes in support of resistance actions, later the group tries to make their escape and find themselves fighting across the countryside. Good Italian war film that keeps up interest because it just keeps moving. I like that the film doesn't get bogged down. My initial reaction was that perhaps it was too rambling a film, but thinking about it afterward I found that I like it more than I thought. The bridge of the title is Nazi held bridge that the Allies have been trying to destroy and failing, but which our heroes need to cross to get home, and which they need to destroy to have any hope of actually getting away. I'm guessing the film incorporates footage from other bigger budgeted films, and while its not always perfectly matched it does help to add weight to the proceedings. Over all it's a good way to spend a night on the couch.

I have seen plenty of Umberto Lenzi's movies, and I have to admit that I didn't expect much of this movie, because almost all of Lenzi's movies from late 80's and early 90's that I've seen, have been more or less bad ones. But still, being a big fan of his movies, I decided to buy this one on UK DVD and give it a try.It was late night, when I began to watch it, and I was pretty tired, but I set myself to trash-mode and pressed play. I was right, it was really trashy, but in a quite enjoyable way. Plot was pretty bad, and there was some scenes that made no point, but hey, it's a zero-budget Italian WW2-movie, so I didn't expect anything more. One thing above the others is something that I have to mention here: the musical score by Fabio Frizzi was really nice.So, if you want to just watch a war movie with great cast, awesome script and billion dollar budget, you'll be definitely disappointed. Otherwise, if you enjoy trashy Italian style stuff, this may be the movie for you.Not the Lenzi's best, but definitely not the worst either. I'll give "Bridge to hell" 7 out of 10.