I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

As exciting as a marathon of news reels, this is a weak mixture of action, romance and anti-war sentiment during the Vietnam war, too cheaply done to get a theatrical release, and no evidence of a T.V. premiere in prime time. The plot is supposed to be about the efforts of American troops to get the last of the Nazi's out of Italy, yet more time is spent on the interactions of soldiers and Italian women, a boring romantic plot involving a commanding officer and a female reporter anxious to report from the front and repetitive stock footage of tanks and bombings. A long introductory sequence makes you think that this is so much more, but it ends up being so little. Former B movie leads John Agar and Richard Webb were obviously hard up for work. This ends up being a waste of time stinker with poor editing, horrid sound (often sounding tinny and warped) and an un-cohesive structure. The only scene worth remembering is the plight of a young soldier at the very beginning writing a letter to his father and having a heart to heart with an older soldier who seems touched over being compared to his dad. Other than that, it is a repetitive repeat over similar situations over and over. If only the hell raiders had raided the studio vault and destroyed this print.

"Hell Raiders" was one of several movies American-International Pictures commissioned from low budget movie maker Larry Buchanan to be released on television. Having seen this film as well as a couple of others made from this agreement, I am not surprised that A.I.P. didn't put their name on the finished product. To call this a cheap movie would be a kindness; there is almost nothing in the way of "production values" on the screen. But the movie suffers from far more than a shabby look. Though the movie only runs 77 minutes long, it is relentlessly padded, such as with liberal use of stock footage, but also with nothing else of significance happening. The mission for the title squad doesn't start until about three-quarters of the movie has passed! And it's not worth the wait - the "action" sequences have absolutely no excitement or bite. Only for those who want to see John Agar at his lowest point in his career.

B movie director Larry Buchanans' made for TV remake of 1958's "Suicide Battalion" may be best left to Buchanan completists (if there is such a thing). Overall, it's too low budget to work, and Buchanan fails to ever make it genuinely interesting or exciting. Even the action scenes are nothing great. The running time is brief as it is (78 minutes), and would have been even shorter had there not been so much use of stock footage. This viewer would be hesitant to say that the film is actually worth sticking with, but helping somewhat is at least one colourful performance, by Texas native Bill Thurman (best known as Coach Popper in "The Last Picture Show") - playing, appropriately enough, a character named Tex.The story is about a squad of demolition experts sent on a volunteer WWII mission to ensure that the valuable documents left behind in an abandoned headquarters do not fall into enemy hands. That means blowing them up GOOD. Unfortunately, it takes over 55 minutes into this movie before the mission even begins! Until then, there's just too much talk and a needless romantic subplot between intrepid Ronald Paxton (47 year old John Agar, in what sadly turned out to be his last starring role) and a war correspondent named Laura Grant (played by gorgeous Joan Huntington). Richard Webb ("Out of the Past") co-stars. Lovers of schlock from this period will note the presence of Jeff Alexander ("Curse of the Swamp Creature", "Horror High") as a Nazi and Annabelle Weenick ("Don't Look in the Basement") as a goofy Italian madam who teaches her prostitutes how to speak English.If you're curious about this one, I would advise going in with VERY low expectations.Four out of 10.

Wow. Found it on Movieplex Echoes of War. Let's see. First the two officers, Agar and Webb, are way too old. The Uniforms seem to be a hodgepodge of Vietnam-era and WWII/Korean War-era clothing. The Germans at first seem to be carrying Gewehr 41(W)semi-auto loaders, but then the German soldier who is watching the "squad" take 10 and shoots the stereotypical young and scared soldier is using what appears to be an early wood-stocked model of the FN91, a post war rifle.Constant battle sounds that are looped, the American weapons, when they fired, (M1s, M1-carbines, .45 pistols, etc) only fire one round, though semi-automatic. This was due to the film makers evidently not using blank adapters in their weapons. When they show the Americans firing, each fires a round, and then the action cuts to the Germans. As we watch the Germans, we hear intense American firing.When a German soldier is firing at the squad with an American .30 caliber machinegun, they move to a close up of him as he shakes the weapon and you hear the firing. Funny, he continued to shake as the firing stops then starts again.I could go on, but after about 30 minutes, I had had enough. I can't believe I wasted so many electrons watching this horrid excuse of a movie.