Customer Reviews

Death Rage

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Yul Brynner (Westworld) is a mechanic (aka: hitman) who returns to his profession after years of retirement, in order to track down and kill his brother's murderer. Along the way he meets a beautiful stripper and her goofy boyfriend. Said stripper is the highlight of the movie, as she disrobes entirely a couple of times! Goodness gracious me! Actually, Yul's no slouch in his role. He comes across as cool and confident. The action is minimal and the dialogue gets pretty silly, yet there's something here that I like. Did I mention the stripper gal?? Martin Balsam (Psycho, Cape Fear) plays a cop on Yul's trail. Worth a watch or two...

This is a very entertaining Italian
gangster (Mafia) action movie.

Mechanic (assassin) Peter Marciani,
a black-clad stony-faced cold-blooded
killer played by Yul Brynner accepts
a "job" to kill a man who had
murdered his brother and travels
from New York to Naples to get
the job done.
There he acquires an apprentice,
Angelo (Massimo Ranieri),
and a girlfriend, Anny (Barbara Bouchet)
and is hounded by a police commissario
(Martin Balsam) who wants to put his
intended target in jail.

There are shootouts, chases and more chases,
romance, etc. and some very cool music.
The characters and acting are very good
and the cinematography and locations
are excellent.
I liked the ending a lot.

I love that Italian cinema "vibe"

If you enjoy gangster/mafia movies,
you will like this one.

This title sucks; the nudity and sex has been removed. Censorship sucks?!

I bought this tape because the young guy, Massimo Ranieri, is one of Italy's best popular singers ever. Too bad he didn't get to sing in the movie.

Imagine a chase scene in Italy with boxy little 1970's vintage European cars. The chase scenes are sort of like Steve McQueen's "Bullitt," only without Steve McQueen or muscle cars or the class. Imagine a hit man whose one unique feature is that he periodically sees psychedelic images because he is incredibly angry that his brother was murdered. Of course, his face mirrors his anger, much the same way Spock showed emotion in "Star Trek." Imagine a protégé who seems to want to be a hit man, but without the class of Jan Michael Vincent as Steve McKenna in "The Mechanic." Once you recognize that this highly derivative movie slaps together the elements of multiple, better movies, and brings nothing new to the genre, you pretty much have the essence of this movie.

This movie begins with a lot of promise. After all, we have the late, great Yul Brynner as hit man Peter Marciani. Brynner had finished a string of movies that had audiences begging for more, especially "Westworld" and "Future World." Brynner has great motivation for being angry, or in a rage. A mobster murdered Brynner's brother and of course, Brynner wants to kill the men behind the murder.

The movie immediately gets complex as Brynner falls for beautiful and naked Barbara Bouchet (if ever there was a reason to watch this movie). Then there is the aforementioned supposed protégé. Add to this stew the local gendarme seeking to find Brynner guilty of some kind of wrongdoing so he can arrest Brynner. My head started to spin with the sub-plots. Then there were the periodic red-flashing scenes that indicated Brynner's "rage," because Brynner apparently was unable to demonstrate rage with his face. Then the scenes that were supposed to be exciting, like the chase scenes, were funny after having seen movies like "Bullitt" and "The French Connection" and many other, better movies.

The problem with this movie is that it never gains traction. There are brief moments where you think the movie is about to redeem itself, and then it loses all the ground it gained. Most of the movie is boring and there is little that Brynner or Bouchet can do to save it.

Side notes: The sound quality was okay with modest issues. The picture quality is poor on an HDTV. Both the sound and picture would benefit from being remastered.

If you are a huge fan of Brynner or Bouchet, then this movie is worth a watch. If you are collecting all the movies about hired killers ever made, then this one should be on your list. If you have wanted to see a cheesy chase scene in Italy to compare with the well-made chase scenes you have already seen, then you should probably get this movie. If you are looking for a great movie about a hit man getting revenge for the murder of his brother, this movie is not it.

Good luck!