The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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.

I only decided to watch this movie because of the potential for ninja action based on the main actors that's what he's known for. Instead what I found was a very odd mix of Indiana Jones, apocalypse now and king Solomon's mines. If you think that sound like far too much in one movie you would be correct. The story begins with a group of explorers in the jungle who are attacked by natives. The group manages to escape but are recaptured apart from the hero who escapes and vows to return to save the group of explorers. The remainder of the film is the hero's trek back into the jungle to rescue his explorer buddies. Sounds straight forward but add in a Nazi scientist and not one but two people out for revenge against the Nazi scientist, the plot starts to get too complicated for what's basically an action movie. The hero occasionally narrates parts of the film a la apocalypse now and the river boat action scenes with murderous natives further add to the apocalypse now style. What is very strange however is the heavyweight acting talent in this movie. There's quite a few well regarded actors in this but it's still not a good film. The action scenes are not bad but the ending is quite unsatisfactory. There's no real depth to any of the characters and it's hard to understand what's going on and exactly who some people are. There's basically too many people, too much plot and far too many idea for this to be a coherent film. It's not even good from a so bad it's good perspective. I'd say it's entirely forgettable but it's hard to forget when it hasn't even registered.

At the end of World War II in 1945, Heinrich Spaatz (Pleasence) vows revenge on evil Nazi doctor Wolfgang Manteuffel (Vaughn). Twenty years later, in 1965, we're introduced to "adventurer" John Hamilton (Dudikoff), a guy who knows the Amazon river like the back of his hand and gives tours through the dangerous jungles. In his latest tour group are people that want to find out the origins of a mysterious disease that's been ravaging the local population, as well as some Nazi hunters that believe Manteuffel is hiding out in the area. All want to find the legendary "Lost City" which should hold the key to pretty much everything. But along the way, they're going to have to face many pitfalls and challenges - everything from "river pirates" to the unknown jungle disease. Will they succeed? I guess Firewalker (1986) wasn't enough of an overlong jungle slog for Cannon, so they decided to make another one a few years later. Why they thought audiences had such an appetite for jungle slogs is unknown, but here's another one. Take the aforementioned Firewalker, add some Golden Needles (1974), and maybe some Skeleton Coast (1988), and you have a plot you've seen many times before. If you really want to see a quest for the lost city, see Quest For The Lost City (1990). Sure, River of Death might be based on a story by the acclaimed Alistair MacLean, but it lacks a Zap Rowsdower. Or even a Mike Pipper. So can it really compete? Dudikoff is as cool as ever, and his gruff narration adds...something...but honestly this isn't really an action movie, it's more of an old-fashioned "adventure" movie. Why the filmmakers thought that would be better, we don't know. It seems like a bit of a cop-out. Dudikoff doesn't even do any Martial Arts. Due to the length of the movie, and the quality cast, we presume Cannon was going for some very mainstream material. What they came out with is pretty boring, because there isn't really any character development, so you don't really care what goes on, and even what little bit of gunplay and explosions there happen to be don't help things.Robert Vaughn - yes, Control 5 himself! - is on hand as a Nazi. We always love seeing him, and he clearly is enjoying himself here, probably because he doesn't get too many Nazi roles. Maybe there's a reason for that? Perhaps the good lawyers at Mark E. Salomone and Morelli liked what they saw and decided to give the poor guy a break. We kid Vaughn because we love. We're also big fans of Donald Pleasence, and he gets to do a lot more here than, say, in the entertaining (but largely Pleasence-less) American Tiger (1990). Herbert Lom is also onboard with the cast of older gentlemen, which adds to the Skeleton Coast vibe. Too bad they couldn't get Borgnine.The bottom line here is that this movie should have been snappier, with a more vibrant pace and about a half an hour chopped out of the running time. We see what the filmmakers were trying to do, but it's all so bloated. Director Steve Carver, who only a year previously directed the fun Bulletproof (1988), should have taken a page out of his own handbook and livened things up a bit like he did with that Gary Busey vehicle. He truly shouldn't have been such a "Butthorn".We've seen a lot worse, and this movie is fine for Dudikoff completists or even Pleasence fans, but casual viewers will probably be turned off by River of Death's sluggish ways.

"Michael Dudikoff as Indianna Jones!", This is a watchable Dudikoff yarn, with fine performances, however the uneven pacing sinks it quite a bit. All the characters are pretty cool, and the story while uneven was not too bad, plus Michael Dudikoff and Donald Pleasence are simply amazing in this!. It never truly bored me and kept me watching, however, it could have been a lot more then just a decent rental!, plus the ending was quite unsatisfying. The opening was really cool, and quite unsettling, and i thought Robert Vaughn was great as the main villain, plus while the ending was unsatisfying it did have a cool little twist in it!. it's no Idianna Jones and far from Dudikoff's best that's for damn sure, however it's still a decent time waster, and Dudikoff is wonderful as the main lead, plus the movie was quite violent at times!. The scenery isn't bad, and it had a cool shootout, plus the dialog amused me. This is a watchable Dudikoff yarn, with fine performances, however the uneven pacing sinks it quite a bit!, worth the watch. The Direction is Not bad. Steve Carver does a decent job here with good camera work, and keeping the film watchable throughout nothing special, but he got the job done. The Acting is very good. Michael Dudikoff is AMAZING as always, and is amazing here, he is very likable, relaxed on top of things, carried the film, had a great presence, had some cool lines, was fantastic in the acting department, and while he is no Harrison Ford he still did an amazing job!, in my opinion. (Dudikoff Rules!!). Robert Vaughn is great as the main villain, he had a blast hamming it up, and was very interesting to watch, and added class. Donald Pleasence is AMAZING as always, and is amazing here, he was extremely interesting to watch as always, was especially good in the finale, added a lot of class, and i loved every moment he was on screen!. (Pleasence Rules!). Herbert Lom is great in his role, he was evil as usual and did a great job. L.Q. Jones does okay but is kinda wasted here. Cynthia Erland is hot and did fine with what she had to do. Rest of the cast do okay. Overall worth the watch. **1/2 out of 5

This movie was as fun as enema. The "plot" is full of cliches, the actors certainly werent after any Oscars ( I wonder how an actor of the calibre of Pleasance was talked into this bizarre freak show?) Dudikoff does some of the worst acting in the history of film. The last insult was the german accent imitation by Vaughn and the anonymous German captain.