King of the Witches

"Johnny Hondo (Mark Gregory) is a Green Beret who goes on a mission to rescue a military VIP in Afghanistan. When Johnny returns home, he’s sent back to Afghanistan by his dying general father to retrieve some top secret documents that have been hidden in a school bus. To get the bus across the border, Johnny and a couple of US soldiers equip it with armored plating and machine guns and proceed to blow up lots of shit.

I’m guessing that the filmmakers thought that the Afghanistan set Rambo 3 was going to be a big hit so they decided to jump on the bandwagon and set their movie in Afghanistan too. Well, not too many people gave a shit about Rambo 3, so Afghanistan: The Last War Bus kinda slipped through the cracks. It also probably slipped through the cracks because it wasn’t very good either.

If you liked Mark Gregory as Trash in Escape 2000, you may enjoy his stone-faced performance here. He makes for a decent enough hero; although he is forced to wear a really stupid looking turtleneck sweater for most of the movie. It was also pretty funny to hear John Vernon’s familiar gravelly voice being dubbed by somebody else.

Unintentional laughs are about the only source of entertainment you’re likely to get out of ATLWB though. The action is mediocre at best (and that’s being generous) and is indifferently staged. Plus, a school bus isn’t what I’d call the most ideal vehicle to use in an extended chase sequence."