Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 20, 2026

Antonio Margheriti's "Jungle Raiders" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films. The supplemental features on the release include assistant director Edoardo Margheriti; restored Italian credit sequence; and restored vintage trailer. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

It is somewhat ironic that the opening credits of Antonio Margheriti’s Jungle Raiders proudly display the Cannon Group logo because the demise of the Italian copycats -- and some specific Italian genre films -- is directly related to the rise of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus’s company in America.

In the 1980s, this relationship materialized for two reasons. First, it became difficult for Italian producers to sustain an important trend they had initiated -- casting well-known international stars, most of whom were American actors. To remain competitive, Italian producers had to invest in much bigger films, like the ones Dino De Laurentiis and his company were greenlighting, some of which were managed and distributed by the Cannon Group in America. Some Italian producers could not keep up, and some shifted their investments elsewhere. Second, there was an even bigger and more damaging trend underway. Many Italian producers, directors, and actors who used to make Italian copycats -- and some other specific Italian genre films -- moved to the adult industry. In the 1980s, there were more and, frequently, significantly better opportunities to make money there. Joe D’Amato was arguably the biggest director to make the transition. Once the exodus began, the ripple effects were felt everywhere, and by the early 1990s, as the home video market exploded, it was over. The Italian copycats died, taking with them various other Italian genre films, too.

Jungle Raiders works with material that could have produced a very nice copycat. More than half of this material overlaps attractive situations in which scammers, opportunists, and various unfriendly exotic characters challenge each other with admirable intensity. Several of these situations offer proper fireworks as well. However, the remaining material is either underwritten or awkwardly mismanaged, which, of course, was a very common flaw in all kinds of different, smaller Italian genre films, not just the copycats.

In the jungles of Malaysia, veteran scammers Captain Yankee (Christopher Connelly) and Gin Fizz (Luciano Pigozzi) are running what appears to be the perfect con. The two organize dangerous expeditions and locate priceless archaeological relics, accompanied by their clients, who then take them back home. However, neither the expeditions nor the archaeological relics are real -- the former are staged with the help of several local residents pretending to be vicious savages, while the latter are cheap knock-offs. During a much-deserved break, Captain Yankee is confronted by the shady police inspector Warren (Lee Van Cleef), who, after revealing that he knows everything there is to know about the profitable con, forces him and his partner to participate in a real expedition to recover the Ruby of Gloom, a truly priceless relic. Soon after, Captain Yankee, Gin Fiz, and several other adventurers begin following an old map that supposedly reveals where the Ruby of Gloom is hidden.

The opening twenty minutes are fantastic. However, once the scammers begin searching for the Ruby of Gloom, the narrative evolves dramatically, and good and poor writing constantly misarrange and mismanage various, often very attractive situations. It is most unfortunate because it is very easy to separate the quality material, and even easier to describe what does not work in the rest. The opening twenty minutes should have been the blueprint for the rest, forcing the rest to mimic and satirize even harder the wit and humor of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jungle Raiders arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films.

The release presents an exclusive new 4K restoration of Jungle Raiders, sourced from the original camera negative. The 4K restoration is also made available on 4K Blu-ray in this combo pack release.

If you have seen our reviews of The Hunters of the Golden Cobra and The Ark of the Sun God, you already know what to expect from the 4K restoration of Jungle Raiders. This 4K restoration is just as beautiful and very faithful. Indeed, all of the visuals it produces boast very good to excellent delineation, clarity, and depth, with impressive density levels as well. I performed numerous comparisons between the native 4K and 1080p presentations of it, and both looked lovely on my system. Color reproduction and balance are outstanding. I noticed a few areas with very small color pulsations again, like the ones I observed on The Hunters of the Golden Cobra. However, here they are even easier to ignore. All primaries and supporting nuances are properly set. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections, such as degraining, sharpening, contrast boosting, etc. Image stability is excellent. A few tiny blemishes pop up here and there, but there are no distracting cuts, marks, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH (for the former) and English (for the latter) subtitles are provided.

I viewed Jungle Raiders in its entirety on 4K Blu-ray and after that spent time with its 1080p presentation on this Blu-ray release. The comments below are from our review of the combo pack release.

I viewed the entire film with the English track, which is preferable for obvious reasons. It does not have any obvious flaws. However, it utilizes overdubbing that could have been much better. In some areas, trained eyes will also notice that lips tend to move slightly slower than they should. This is a known flaw on a lot of English dub tracks included on Italian genre films. There are no age-related or encoding anomalies to report.

Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Ruby Trail - in this exclusive new program, assistant director Edoardo Margheriti, son of director Antonio Margheriti, confirms that Jungle Raiders was also shot in the Philippines, and discusses his father's enormous obsession with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he had seen theatrically in America, and the production of Jungle Raiders. Margheriti also has some very interesting comments about the special effects and action choreography in Jungle Raiders. In Italian, with English subtitles. (28 min).

• Italian Credit Sequence - it is presented here fully restored. (4 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered original trailer for Jungle Raiders. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Jungle Raiders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Whoever greenlighted the 4K restorations of Antonio Margheriti's The Hunters of the Golden Cobra, The Ark of the Sun God, and Jungle Raiders deserves a ton of credit. The party that handled these films deserves even more credit, and I hope Severin Films stays with it for as long as possible because its restoration and color grading work are first-class. If all Italian genre films, big and small, received such faithful 4K restorations, the internet would be a much more pleasant place to visit. Jungle Raiders is like the other two films, a copycat that mimics plenty of what its creator fell in love with after attending a theatrical screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark in America. It is not a masterpiece. However, if seen very late at night, it entertains rather well. RECOMMENDED.