Platoon Leader / Soldier Boyz (1988-1995)

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Kino InternationalKino Lorber have dated and detailed their upcoming double-feature release of Louis Morneau's Soldier Boyz (1995) and Aaron Norris' Platoon Leader (1988). The release will be available for purchase on December 12.

Platoon Leader a.k.a. Nam

Synopsis: West Point graduate lieutenant Jeff Knight meets cynicism when taking command of sergeant Michael McNamara's tour veterans platoon in a Vietnamese trench camp. Unlike his predecessor, who hid till the end of his tour, Jeff takes charge, experiences the manual doesn't allow coping with all realities and gets wounded. He returns, now fully respect by men and superiors. Besides the Vietcong, the platoon wrestles with the inscrutable villagers, which the GIs officially protect, but also fear as some collaborate with them, other covertly with the Cong, either way subject to bloody reprisals. Also starring Robert F. Lyons, Michael DeLorenzo, Jesse Dabson, and Rick Fitts.

Soldier Boyz

Synopsis: Veteren Howard Toliver (Dudikoff) works at a prison for extremely dangerous juvenile offenders. Recruited to rescue a wealthy girl being held captive in Vietnam, he assembles a team composed of some of the most violent inmates, many of whom are enemies. After battling their way through the jungle, they lay siege to the fortress of the brutal warlord Vinh Moc (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who has the hostage hidden away. Will they work together, or allow their rivalries to consume them?

Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW TRANSFER for Platoon Leader
Reversible Blu-ray Art
Theatrical Trailers for Platoon Leader, Soldier Boyz, Avenging Force, River of Death and Delta Force 2

Doesn't seem to be thread for this. Anybody else excited for this release? I'm really excited for Platoon Leader in high definition, Soldier Boyz is a nice bonus.

I'm a big Dudikoff fan so I saw Platoon Leader in the theater and loved it. It was starting to seem like it would never get a Blu-ray release, it never even came out on DVD. I've held on to a few vhs copies, which never looked very good. But big thanks to Kino for delivering more Dudikoff on Blu!

Also Looking forward to revisiting Soldier Boyz. As far as non-Cannon straight to video Dudikoff films go, it's one of his better ones.

[Michael24]

I was a huge Dudikoff fan as a kid, so it's always nice to get more Dudikoff on HD. I only saw Soldier Boyz once or twice back in the late-90s or early-2000s but I always enjoyed Platoon Leader. I even have the soundtrack. A shame there are no Dudikoff interviews or commentaries considering he's done some for other releases but it'll be nice to have more of his movies on Blu-ray just the same.

My old Platoon Leader VHS also never looked good. For some reason, at least the copy I had, it was recorded in SLP! When I first bought it in the mid-90s, I slid the tape out of the box and through the clear opening it looked like there was only about 30 minutes worth of tape. I thought I got a botched copy or something. It had the whole movie but the quality was awful and being SLP it always played hell with my VCR's tracking. So it'll be great to see it in HD. Will be a drastic improvement over how I was used to seeing it.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Originally Posted by Michael24

I was a huge Dudikoff fan as a kid, so it's always nice to get more Dudikoff on HD. I only saw Soldier Boyz once or twice back in the late-90s or early-2000s but I always enjoyed Platoon Leader. I even have the soundtrack. A shame there are no Dudikoff interviews or commentaries considering he's done some for other releases but it'll be nice to have more of his movies on Blu-ray just the same.

My old Platoon Leader VHS also never looked good. For some reason, at least the copy I had, it was recorded in SLP! When I first bought it in the mid-90s, I slid the tape out of the box and through the clear opening it looked like there was only about 30 minutes worth of tape. I thought I got a botched copy or something. It had the whole movie but the quality was awful and being SLP it always played hell with my VCR's tracking. So it'll be great to see it in HD. Will be a drastic improvement over how I was used to seeing it.

Nice! I love George S. Clinton's score. I have a few of the tracks from ITunes but I would love to have the whole cd. I do actually have the soundtrack to River of Death on cd. Yeah, it is a bummer they didn't get any Dudikoff participation on this one.

[Dunemoon]

Yeah. My copy arrived today (along with the Viper Complete Series set).

Last time I saw PL was in the 80s.

[xander]

This is exciting. Love me some Dudikoff.

[Michael24]

Platoon Leader review

Soldier Boyz review

[Member-222782]

I got my copy yesterday. First thing I did was switch the art sleeve. I don't know enough about the other film in this double feature but I really dislike shared covers. BTW, is Soldier Boyz a sequel to Platoon Leader? I only ask because Dudikoff is in both films.

[Michael24]

No, the two films are completely unrelated other than the fact both are set in Vietnam.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Originally Posted by Michael24

Platoon Leader review

Soldier Boyz review

Damn, that review of Platoon Leader is harsh. Both about the picture quality and the film itself.

[Michael24]

I got my copy last week and watched both movies over the last two nights. Of the two, Soldier Boyz fares better in terms of picture and audio quality. I mean, it's not reference material but it looks and sounds fine.

Platoon Leader has problems. (This site's review is pretty accurate.) Some daytime exteriors look fine, others look drab, while a lot of interiors and nighttime scenes seem murkier than would be intended. The very first nighttime scene is practically a total blackout. You might as well be watching a solid black screen and only listening to the audio. And speaking of the audio, at times throughout the movie it sounds a little murky as well. Ultimately, I guess it's still watchable but it's certainly not a remaster or anything.

Still glad to have this, just so I can get rid of my old VHS releases and have more Dudikoff in my Blu-ray collection, but it would have been great if at least Platoon Leader had gotten a new transfer or remastering.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Originally Posted by Michael24

I got my copy last week and watched both movies over the last two nights. Of the two, Soldier Boyz fares better in terms of picture and audio quality. I mean, it's not reference material but it looks and sounds fine.

Platoon Leader has problems. (This site's review is pretty accurate.) Some daytime exteriors look fine, others look drab, while a lot of interiors and nighttime scenes seem murkier than would be intended. The very first nighttime scene is practically a total blackout. You might as well be watching a solid black screen and only listening to the audio. And speaking of the audio, at times throughout the movie it sounds a little murky as well. Ultimately, I guess it's still watchable but it's certainly not a remaster or anything.

Still glad to have this, just so I can get rid of my old VHS releases and have more Dudikoff in my Blu-ray collection, but it would have been great if at least Platoon Leader had gotten a new transfer or remastering.

Yep, totally agree with you about Platoon Leader's picture quality. Your description of it is spot on. Got this last week along with a batch of other 80's flicks I've been wanting for a while from Kino's end of the year sale: Revenge of the Ninja, No Retreat, No Surrender, The Challenge, No Man's Land and Running Scared. First disc I put in right away was Platoon Leader to check out the picture quality. Unfortunately, the reviews I've read are right. The nighttime scenes are way too dark and definitely not intended to be. Even the trailer on the disc looks more accurate as to how it should look.

Kino did say this is a brand new 2017 remaster, don't know what happened. Kino did an outstanding job with Avenging Force and River of Death. Those two Dudikoff films look awesome on Blu-ray. The ball kind of got dropped on this one, I think Kino may have added Soldier Boyz to this release to make up for Platoon Leader's lackluster picture quality. Still, glad to have it, too, Platoon Leader is still certainly watchable for the most part and Soldier Boyz looks pretty good.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan Kenobi

Damn, that review of Platoon Leader is harsh. Both about the picture quality and the film itself.

Platoon leaders quality is really inconsistent from the screencaps.

On some shots you have a nice (dated, but nice) HD quality picture. Other shots the detail looks blown away with worse resolution than a DVD.

From what I can tell it looks like heavy DNR was selectively employed for the very dark scenes. I imagine the (poor) source material was a snowstorm for these scenes and Kino decided DNR was better than a snowstorm. Would have been nice if they added in back some artificial grain to make it look a little more filmlike where this processing was done, though.

I picked this up during the Kino sale, maybe I'll give it a shot this week sometime.

[WesReviews]

I imagine part of the reason Kino decided to make Platoon Leader part of a double feature instead of a stand-alone release was because maybe they knew their elements wouldn't make for the best HD presentation of the movie. So to help offset any disappointment in that area, they offered two movies in the package. Just speculation, though.

Either way, I'm completely fine with it and truly am glad they released these.

[ROSS.T.G.]

I was thinking about getting this but after these reviews I don’t know.

[agenda]

Platoon Leader COMPARISON