Tough Sgt. Buck McGriff (the always excellent Willem Dafoe) and his equally hard-nosed partner Sgt. Albaby Perkins (a sound and convincing performance by Gregory Hines) find themselves in tremendous jeopardy as they investigate a series of vicious Vietnamese prostitute murders in 1968 Saigon. Director Christopher Crowe, who also co-wrote the coarse and engrossing script with Jack Tibeau, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, creates and maintains an uncompromisingly harsh and gritty tone, builds a good deal of tension, and stages the rousing action set pieces with real crackling aplomb. The strong chemistry between Dafoe and Hines really keeps the picture humming; they receive sturdy support from Amanda Pays as streetwise nun Nicole, Fred Ward as their easygoing superior Dix, Scott Glenn as the fearsome and unhinged Colonel Dexter Armstrong, Keith David as surly uncooperative witness Maurice, David Alan Grier as the helpful Rogers, Kay Tong Lim as meddlesome Vietnamese cop Lime Green, and Raymond O'Connor as the paranoid Elgin Flowers. The seedy exotic location, unsparingly profane dialogue, sordid subject matter, startling outbursts of raw brutal violence, and a sizable smattering of nudity give this movie an extra tart'n'tangy kick. David Gribble's glittery cinematography and James Newton Howard's pulsating score are both up to par. A most worthwhile film.

Scott Glenn's performance is one of the craziest, most unhinged spectacles I've ever seen outside of BAD LIEUTENANT. That said, I went to see this movie three times when it first came out, and I tell you what, it's flawed, and crazy, and not all there, and a lot of it is unfocused, but it belongs squarely in the 'Nam Movie' pantheon, right there with HAMBURGER HILL, FULL METAL JACKET, APOCALYPSE NOW, and PLATOON. This flick is, if only by some accident, the real deal, and in many ways, the only other piece of media I can compare this movie to is Mark Jury's stunning act of photojournalism, THE Vietnam PHOTO BOOK. The display of disorientation and malaise, the feeling of the grimy, nasty, sex-filled environments presented to off-duty soldiers in an occupied country, is second to none. I remember Roger Ebert's review of this film and particularly his opinion that it was, I quote, "Needlessly profane". Obviously Mr. Ebert was never in any military. Is this a perfect movie? NO. Is this even a good movie? Well, not really. Is this a good, or necessary Vietnam movie? Yes, it is. If you haven't seen this, you are not complete. Trust me on that. OFF LIMITS is critical war-movie viewing.

If you like mindless violence, then this is your movie. Think Jack the Ripper in Saigon. Murders of prostitutes and the trail leads to a higher up. Gregory Hines and Willem Dafoe are plainclothes MPs trying to solve one murder when they find more. They end up working with a nun (Amanda Pays)who knows the dead girls who have been murdered over the past year. There is even a nunsploitation angle as the sexual tension between Dafoe and Pays is always present. Their efforts are complicated by the fact that the local Vietnamese cop (Kay Tong Lim) doesn't like them. There are some good supporting players like Fred Ward, David Alan Grier, and Scott Glenn. The killer is not reveled until the end, but I bet you guessed who it was.

During the sixties,Anataole Litvak made "the night of the generals".A nazi officer was on a prostitutes murder's trail in Varsaw,Poland:and it seemed that the culprit was a general (check the title).That script was absurd -in Varsaw,during WW2,there was worse,to say the least!-and dubious taste. So back in Saigon,during the Vietnam war.Two cops are on a prostitutes ' murder's trail...and it seems that this killer is a general....Well you get the picture. Well,it's not that bad.It's rather entertaining,thanks to Dafoe's good performance.A lot of things do not rise above routine:the two cops who ,of course, are very different,the de rigueur swearwords ,and strip tease galore.What's more interesting is the conflict between the American cops and their local colleagues ,although it's much too superficial,as the Dafoe/nun 's relationship is.Unlike Litvak's Polish extravaganza in which we soon know the murderer's name,"off limits' is a whodunit,saving his identity for the last minutes. Best moment:although over the top,the scene on the plane where two simultaneous questionings take place gives goosepimples.

From early on in this film, you got the feeling that this was destined to fall into the love story between Willem Dafoe and the cute nun. Colourful indeed! Dafoe and his partner Gregory Hinds are investigating murders of prostitutes in Saigon, who have all been killed by an American GI. It's their job to find which one. Competently scripted, reasonably directed and acted, this is another in the line of harmless enough Vietnam films of the time, that are neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

Pretty decent offering featuring a couple of G.I. MP's who try to solve a string of brutal prostitute murders. After a while it was plain who the killer was. One part that just didn't play was the car bombing: I don't think yelling "get down" would save anybody in this case.

source: Saigon

Gregory Hines and Willem Dafoe make an excellent team in this unusual murder mystery set in Vietnam.Actual filming overseas add to the realism.Anyone ever serving in the Pacific can attest to that.The soundtrack was great, using music not usually heard in most of the Vietnam movies.Supporting actors performances were also very good ( Fred ward, Amanda Pays ).I have collected all the Vietnam movies and rate this one of the best.

Never heard about "Off Limits" before when it aired on late Friday night television here in my country, but everything about it instantly appealed to me big time. There's the obscurity status for starters (I'm particularly intrigued by films I never heard about before), the prominent cast (Willem Dafoe, Gregory Hines, Fred Ward, Keith David, Scott Glenn), the period of release (late 80's) and - most of all - the concept in its entirety. As you can derive from the alternate title "Saigon", the film is set in Vietnam during the infamous war, but it's definitely not just another epic illustrating the horrible battles in the jungle or the traumatizing impact on its soldiers. "Off Limits" is first and foremost a genuine cop thriller, set in a hellish environment torn apart through warfare, and an effectively disturbing portrait of the horrible issues caused by American soldiers outside of the battlefields. McGriff and Perkins have the worst jobs in the world, since they're employed as army police officers in Saigon and responsible to investigate the crimes committed by American soldiers. One day they're assigned to investigate the murder of a Vietnamese prostitute who had a child with an American soldier. They quickly discover this isn't the first gruesome crime of its kind, as no less than seven similar cases were reported during the past year and they're clearly the work of a serial killer with a strict modus operandi. The devoted and headstrong duo also discovers that the previous officer prematurely quit his investigation even though he came fairly close to capturing the killer, undoubtedly because several high ranked officers got involved and his own life became endangered. McGriff and Perkins, however, are determined to stop to sadist killer, especially when they receive help from a beautiful and street-wise young novice. "Off Limits" is a fast-paced, suspense and frequently very violent thriller with a screenplay that is full of misleading twists, false leads and red herrings, like a legitimate and compelling whodunit thriller ought to be. Some sequences are even downright fantastic, for instance the helicopter-interrogation (Scott Glenn is sublime) or the nail-biting scene where the copper duo is surrounded by a mob of furious and vengeful Vietnamese people. Christopher Crowe's direction is tight and consequently surefooted – which is quite remarkable for a debut feature – and his own script is *almost* completely devoid of dreadful clichés and irritating stereotypes. I do emphasize the word 'almost' because a Vietnam movie without mad-raving American officers and/or foul-mouthed Vietnamese prostitutes is practically unthinkable. Dafoe and Hines provide some terrific on screen chemistry, but they certainly aren't your typical witty interracial buddies like Eddie Murphy & Nick Nolte in "48 Hours" or Mel Gibson & Danny Glover in "Lethal Weapon". They tease and provoke each other all the time, but the atmosphere of the film and the nature of the events are simply to austere to mix with comedy. The film is beautifully shot and has a marvelous soundtrack filled with timeless contemporary songs from James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Arthur Resnick. "Off Limits" is a terrific and incomprehensibly overlooked film. If you have the opportunity to watch it, please do so without hesitation.

Off limits became something of a quasi-cult film for me. I was in Vietnam with the Marines north and south of Danang in 1968 and once fantasized about hitching a ride down Highway 1 to see Saigon, no small feat as it is something like 580 road miles. But the highway was full of vehicles during the day and you could always catch a ride. I never did get Saigon during the war, but finally did with a group of war vets in 1994. One of my favorite quips in the movie is when Dafoe turns around and finds some South Viet QCs (MPs) coming toward him and says, "We've got mice." That's what we GIs called Viets wearing helmets with QC (Quan Canh) on them. I am now spending several months in Saigon on sort of a temporary assignment, i.e., staying with the in-laws of my Viet wife on a winter break. I would like to see Off Limits again just to critique the city backdrop it used and how realistic it was. I thought this movie could have become a TV mini series but realize it would have been more expensive than China Beach in coming up with SE Asian sets to shoot on. I give it a 7, perhaps too high of a rating, as it goes good on a rainy Saturday afternoon over drinks with friends, especially if they happen to be Vietnam vets.