Great Film overall

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This thrilling picture deals with an adventurer named Hamilton (Michael Dudikiff) who decides to go in search of the lost city in the Amazon jungle , entering the dangerous world of a forgotten tribe . A motley crew of other people (Donald Pleasence , Herbert Lom , L.Q. Jones) in search of wealth , tripping over Neo-Nazi scientific and war criminals . But to their terror they find out that they have bit off more than they can think . As a Nazi doctor (Rovert Vaughn) , Joseph Mengele-alike , still doing his experiments on people in the same place and endeavouring to reconstitute the Nazi movement from his Amazonian sanctuary by creating an army and a deadly weapon .This absurd and mindless adventure/thriller deals with a misfit crew who travels Amazons , being led by star Michael Dudikoff along with other people with reasons of their own decide to join him for the wealth of the lost city . The picture contains frenetic action , thrills , intrigue , shootouts with no much sense and a silly finale . The story is a crossover between Indiana Jones adventures , ¨Boys from Brazil¨ and films about tribes of Amazons . But it results to be too complex to be harmlessly agreeable . The acting of the little interesting characters is unbelievable and unconvincing . Good support cast , though widely wasted , including notorious secondaries such as Robert Vaughn as Wolfgang Manteuffel , Donald Pleasence as Heinrich Spaatz ,Herbert Lom as Colonel Ricardo Diaz and special mention to L.Q. Jones or Justus McQueen who still today playing . Based on an Alistair MacLean's novel , a best-selling author , whose stories have been much better rendered in other occasions . Alistair employed the pseudonym Ian Stuart several times in order to prove that his books were best-sellers due to their content and not solely because his name appeared on the cover. This is one of the several adaptations based on his novels and most of them set in WW2 , such as the successful ¨Where the eagles dare¨ and ¨Guns of Navarone¨ . Furthermore, ¨Ice Station Cebra¨ that is the first of two movies based on an Alistair MacLean novel set in rugged icy and snowy terrain , the second would be ¨Bear Island¨ . ¨Ice Station Zebra¨ is one of two filmed Alistair MacLean adaptations directed by John Sturges , the other was ¨The Satan Bug¨ made and released about three years earlier . ¨River of Death¨ produced in low budget by Avi Lerner and British Harry Alan Towers was middlingly directed by Steve Carver . He's an expert on action/thriller genre such as ¨Capone¨, ¨Big Bad Mama¨, ¨Steel¨, Drum¨ and directed two successful hits for Chuck Norris as ¨Lone McQuade¨ and ¨An eye for eye¨. His last films have been failed as ¨The wolves¨, ¨Dead center¨ and this ¨River of death¨ . Rating : below average . Too ridiculous for the complexity to be worth watching .

I'm sure that the original novel by Alistair McLean was a whole lot better than this film would indicate. It would almost have to be. This is a style of film making not seen since the pleasant days of Republic and Monogram Pictures were active. It's almost like a bad serial without as many chapter breaks.A Mengele like scientist played with relish by Robert Vaughn as the Allied armies are closing in on both sides of Nazi Germany has to flee. Those concentration camp inmates, wonderful subjects for experimentation are going to become unavailable shortly and he wants to continue his research. He kills a Swiss investigator and his SS backer Donald Pleasance he merely wounds in a rather stupid double cross.Fast forward twenty years to the Sixties and two fisted adventurer Michael Dudikoff is looking for a lost Inca city in the Amazon head waters where all kinds of strange things have been happening to the natives. All sorts of other people want to get to the city as well for varying motives. They team up with the intrepid Dudikoff leading the motley expedition.River Of Death is a throwback to those old action adventure films that used to be churned out of those B studios by the bucket load. That's not necessarily a good thing. It might have been better had this been a satire of same, but River Of Death is as serious as a crutch.What a serial this could have been, river pirates, corrupt police, lost city, Nazi scientists, what more could you want?

This movie is the pits. The worst kind of B film making. The acting isn't bad, but that's not saying much. Robert Vaughn and Donald Pleasance are included in the cast, and sleep walk their way through their respective scenes. Dudikoff doesn't do much apart from wandering about and mouthing his dialogue. There is some gun play and pyrotechnics later on in the movie, but the pace is so deadly slow you probably won't notice. The jungle locale' isn't used to good effect, and the photography is listless. This movie is a pointless exercise in monotony. There is nothing to get your teeth into, the scenario is so uninteresting, it all amounts to very little. Even Dudikoff fans won't be able to find anything redeeming about this outing. Consider the bullet dodged.

"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