All Hell Broke Loose

Ever heard of a B~Movie ? This is a Z. This Movie is so bad. Bad acting, Bad lines, Bad Shooting Scenes. The guns firing even sound toy like.

Normally I love westerns, enough so that I am frequently forgiving of any shortcomings that they may have. However, "All Hell Broke Loose" is so unbelievably awful that I couldn't find any enjoyment out of it. The first clue as to its awfulness is that it's made by Barnholtz Entertainment, who are notorious for making and distributing shabby product. The second clue is that David Carradine was in the movie. In the past he made some entertaining movies, but towards the end of his life he was in one stinker after another, including this one. Though he is top-billed, you should know he's actually just in a minor supporting role. He doesn't seem very enthusiastic, and looking at the rest of the movie you'll soon see why. The photography is often washed out and murky, there's a cheap look to every shot (even those taking place in the wilderness), some of the actors are VERY OBVIOUSLY dubbed, the action is almost non-existent (and boring when there is "action"), the story is confusing, and the movie is so gosh-darned DULL. There is NOTHING of merit in this movie, and the movie's badness is not of the so-bad-it's-good type, so there's no reason to watch this movie, even if you are a Carradine fan.

I like westerns and sniper type movies so I was looking forward to this film but I think this was the worst movie I have ever seen. It was so bad it was funny. In fact if the makers said it was made because they were trying to make the worst movie in history I wouldn't be surprised. The script could have been written by a 10 year old and the acting (if you could call it that) was absolutely terrible. Some of the lines were fluffed and they didn't bother re-shooting the scenes. The timing of the lines was none existent and meaningless, they were basically just saying the lines with minimal emotion as if they just learned each line seconds before and had no clue how to deliver them. The editing was terrible and just cut from one scene to the next with no fluidity so it was hard to figure out what was going on. The camera work was horrific, sometimes the picture would tilt slightly and at one point it was on a character and tilted up until he was almost out of the shot and quickly came back down as if the cameraman tripped. The "sharpshooter" couldn't hit a grown man standing in the open from 20 yards with a long scoped rifle. This is a guy who has 1000 yard confirmed kills. He was practicing trying to hit a watering can from 30 yards with the rifle and missing, he could have thrown the rifle at it and hit it from that distance. Avoid this movie unless you have a choice between watching this and being drowned in your own excrement. Actually the excrement drowning is a better option.

Possibly the worst video ever made. Who financed this crud? Criminal use of equipment and bozo talent from the director, down. Even Carradine looks bedraggled and embarrassed for the five or so pointless minutes he's in this bomb. The actors are so amateurish as to be embarrassing. The post-production voice dubbing makes characters sound like they're in a recording studio. The script is simply phenomenally and unbearably childish. Even the costumes are bogus...made-in-china versions of a smattering of different periods, mostly Dollar Store. The buildings are cheap facades or obviously your uncle's vacation cabin. Everyone wears biker's vests...no collars! A few of the sidearms are big and bulky, but this pathetic director has made the saddest Leone attempt in history with enough time, gear, money and people to make at least one blade of grass watchable...and nothing is. Some adults should have manned the equipment and allowed a class of first-graders write and act exactly as they pleased and it would have been "Once Upon A Time In The West" in comparison to this donkey. Actually...maybe it was a bunch of first-graders. Even the beards were stupid looking. Message to director Christopher Forbes: you've managed to make every error in the film world and then some. Learn IMMENSE amounts from this or look for another line of work.

I'll give this a little bit of credit for not being stupid and not being obnoxious, but a film has to have something to offer other than not being stupid or obnoxious to make it worth watching.

I wanted this movie to succeed but the writers seemed to have forgotten one of the first rules of writing a script. Unlike a book that takes place primarily in the character's head, a movie is a story told primarily in pictures.

In other words, All Hell Broke Loose has too much talk and not enough action or interesting visuals.

The performances of David Carradine and lead actor Jim Hilton are decent, but that's about all this has going for it.

What's really and truly sad is that this amateurish production is Carradine's last western appearance, pitiful considering his enjoyable past work in "Kung Fu" and The Long Riders.