Fabulous Movie Review®

One of the fun things about watching spaghetti westerns is that its pretty much a crapshoot whether or not a movie is going to be good or bad. Chances are you don't know anybody who has seen it, so you never know what you are going to get. I recently got a four movie set from Netflix, four movies on one disc, two on each side, of some obscure spaghetti westerns, and I was surprised, no, astonished, no, shocked, that all four were good, almost great, movies.

Blindman

This is the movie that I actually added the four movie set to my queue to see. It's the only one of which I had heard. Surprisingly, it wasn't my favorite of the four, but it is still good. You wouldn't think that a story about a blind gunfighter would work, but it does, in a spaghetti western type of way. Most Nicolas Cage movies are less believable. Maybe all of them.

7 out of 10 (Good)

Massacre Time

Easily my favorite of the four and thats not because the others were bad, it's just that this one was so good. Starring Italy's answer to Clint Eastwood, Franco Nero, who also starred in Django, the fact that Massacre Time is not a classic and not on its own remastered DVD is mind boggling. I consider it to be at the top of the second tier of spaghetti westerns (anything not directed by Sergio Leone or starring Clint Eastwood). I will own it someday, even if I have to buy this four movie set togetit.

8.5 out of 10 (Very, very, very good)

One Dollar Too Many

A comedy caper film of sorts, with some plot twists and turns, and entertaining and carefully choreographed fist fights. A pretty good and totally unexpected movie.

6.5 out of 10 (Pretty good)

The Beast

Stars Klaus Kinski who turns up in a lot of spaghetti westerns, but unfortunately his character and all of the other characters are rather dull. It's a good story and worth seeing if you are a fan of the genre though.

6 out of 10 (Ok)

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The Searchers
So, this is considered by many to be one of the greatest westerns of all time. It is good, but it suffers from some of the conventions of the era in which it was made.

1. Music choreographed to the movement of a horse. Come ON!
2. Bad and/or over acting. Not John Wayne of course, but his sidekick. It was freaking awful to watch at times.

6 out of 10 (OK)

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The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Interesting movie from Sam Peckinpah. A romantic tragic comedy western. I daresay the first of that type I have ever seen and most likely the last. Peckinpah is usually known for the violence in his movies (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) and I wasn't expecting a love story. I liked it though and if you are trying to get your wife to watch a western, then this is a good choice.

7.5 out of 10 (Very good)

Fabulous Spaghetti Western Review©

	Companeros
	Released: 1970 Rating: NR (Not Rated) Length: 2 hrs 0 min Genre: Western Starring: Tomas Milian, Franco Nero, Jack Palance, Fernando Rey, Karin Schubert Directed by: Sergio Corbucci Composer: Ennio Morricone
	Very similar to another western called Run Man Run in that both are directed by men named Sergio (a popular name in Italy indeed), they both star Tomas Milian, are centered around the Mexican Revolution and a treasure of gold and a rebel leader/poet/professor. However, Companeros features Jack Palance as a sadistic pot smoking villain, so, there's that. I should say something about how excellent it was now. It was excellent indeed. Update: You know what, now that I think about it I can't remember if Jack Palance was a pot smoking villain in this movie or The Professionals. Its been about 9 months since I've seen both movies. Update update:Phew. Ok, I just did a little Googling. It was this one.
	8 out of 10 (Very, very good)

Fabulous Spaghetti Western Review

	Death Rides A Horse
	Released: 1968 Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Length: 1 hr 52 mins Genre: Western Starring: Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law, Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli Directed by: Giulio Petroni
	Death Rides a Horse contains almost everything a spaghetti western needs to be considered great, Lee Van Cleef, music by Ennio Morricone, revenge and some other stuff. What's missing? Clint Eastwood. Instead we get John Phillip Law, who wasn't bad per se, but his voice drove me insane. Like a little boy trying to talk like a man. Still, this is a quality western, and should be on everyone who is a fan of the genre's must see list.
	8 out of 10 (Very, very good)

Fabulous Spaghetti Western Review©

	Four of the Apocalypse
	Released: 1975 Rating: NR (Not Rated) Length: 1 hr 44 mins Genre: Western Starring: Harry Baird, Lynne Frederick, Tomas Milian, Michael J. Pollard, Fabio Testi Directed by: Lucio Fulci
	Easily the worst spaghetti western I have ever watched. The actors were a bunch of mannequins. The story was poorly written. The violence was B horror movie grade with copious amounts of fake blood. I think the gore was the worst part. Its a western! Shooting, knifings, great, some whack job eating human flesh, bad. Did I mention the ending? It made me want to punch a lamb. I had high hopes for Four of the Apocalypse. At first glance, it sounds good. A gambler, a pregnant prostitute, a drunk and a retard get harassed by a bandit. Brilliant! Alas, no. Words cannot express how much I hated this movie.
	1 out of 10 (Suckiest movie that ever sucked)

Fabulous Spaghetti Western Review®

Corri uomo corri (Run Man Run)
Another spaghetti western directed by someone named Sergio, I wasn't sure what to expect from this particular Sergio. A second or even third tier suckfest, really.

What is the English equivalent of Sergio? It seems to be a pretty popular name amongst Italian fascist movie directors.

I couldn't have been more surprised. Yeah, it suffers from some bad acting, and the immemorable lead characters are disappointing, but it was entertaining and worth watching for anybody who enjoys westerns, especially the spaghetti kind.

7.1 out of 10.

Fabulous Spaghetti Western Review®

I make no apologies for my obsession with Westerns. Some guys like comic books and Star Wars; I like cigarillos and squinting.

I watched a trilogy of sorts of Sergio Corbucci movies this weekend. Two of them I own. Django, which I just bought, and The Great Silence, which I purchased last Christmas with a gift card. Corbucci, in my mind, is the second best writer/director of spaghetti westerns behind only his buddy Sergio Leone, the man who brought us The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in the West.

The Great Silence
My favorite of these three movies. The Great Silence is unique in that it's set in the dead of winter in Utah and the cold, snowy terrain is as much of a character as Silence himself, so named because bounty killers cut his throat as a child rendering him mute.

His life has been a never ending quest for revenge against any and all bounty killers, because not only did they scar him for life physically, they also killed his father.

Anyway, that's enough of the back story. If you've seen all of Leone's movies and are just itchin' to see another spaghetti western, this is your best choice as far as I am concerned.

The DVD extra features contain a happy ending which is downright hilarious, too.

8.5 stars out 10.

The Hellbenders
In case you are wondering, a hellbender is a giant salamander. This is a story about some Confederate soldiers, who call themselves the Hellbenders (think Flying Hellfish), and steal a convoy of money with which they hope to revive the Civil War.

I really liked this one, because the story was original and well written and the ending caught me by surprise, which isn't hard to do admittedly (will Nemo escape? will his father find him in time? I just don't know. I just don't know).

I don't own it yet, but its definitely a contender for my collection.

8.0 stars out of 10.

Django
This movie gets all the hype. An international following, cultish even. Franco Nero is an Italian version of Clint Eastwood... Many unauthorized (and bad) sequels... Blah blah blah. I fell victim to the hype and bought Django. It was pretty cheap so I'm not too worried about it.

Can't say that I was too impressed with it though. The story was pretty standard other than Django dragging a coffin around wherever he went. The set design reminded me of any 1950s western with painted backdrops and a saloon that John Wayne could have been filmed in. And the acting was rather wooden and not dynamic.

I judge it harshly perhaps, and I might appreciate it more after another viewing, but I'll still give it 7 stars out of 10.