Commando Mengele

Written by the legendary Jess Franco and directed by Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground), Angel of Death (AKA Commando Mengele) is a dreadfully inept Euro action flick that is nowhere near as sleazy, gory or trashy as it should have been given subject matter and the 'talent' involved, and which consequently bores for almost its entire runtime.

The film stars Antonio Mayans as Marc, a Nazi hunter on the trail of the notorious German doctor Josef Mengele (Howard Vernon), who is alive and well, creating mutant monkey men in his laboratory. Assembling a team that includes an explosives/weapons expert, a martial artist, a circus acrobat, and an electronics wizard, Marc must gather evidence before launching an attack on Mengele's heavily guarded fortress.

Incredibly uneventful for most of the time, I kept telling myself that it must get better eventually, but that simply wasn't the case. After lots of excruciatingly dull Nazi nonsense, with not a single credible performance from the entire cast (a chimpanzee steals the show), the film finally gets to the action packed finale in which almost everyone dies. Sadly, an opportunity to go overboard with the blood and guts is sorely missed, most of the extras simply falling unconvincingly to the ground with red paint on their shirts.

Oh, how visibly low-budget this is. It's immediately detectable in the extra excitable cinematography, curt editing, uneven sound design, oddly meek costume design, and "yeah, no, that's good" direction. To these facets add dialogue, scene writing, characters, and exposition that are Just So, and sometimes laughably perfunctory. The story is passable in the most uselessly broad of strokes, and plot development, but it really feels like after a basic concept was pitched, the rest of the screenplay was cobbled together just to loosely assemble a picture around it. All this definitely does reflect in turn on the acting, and it often comes across that the players are Just Getting By, or in sometimes plainly overacting - though in some cases I'm unsure if they're simply not very good at their trade. True, one may expect such qualities from movies that Jesus Franco was involved with, in varying proportions, but still 'Angel of death,' also known as 'Commando Mengele,' readily shows itself to be a viewing experience only for ardent fans of the filmmaker or the blithely curious. And even then, let me be frank: it's not recommendable.

I do like Norbert Verrone's music, though some of it is weirdly repetitive, and other themes are peculiarly out of place. The filming locations are lovely. I'm unclear whether it's Franco or Andrea Bianchi who is to be credited as director (or maybe both?), but while that aspect is seemingly content with a single take of every moment, it's technically proficient. For the most part this isn't outright bad, just unmistakably weak owing both to limited resources and limited skills. Yet when the question turns to the screenplay whipped up between Georges Friedland and Marius Lesoeur in addition to Franco, the whole absolutely falls apart right in front of our eyes. 'Angel of death' at least maintains a steady pace, such that it seems to go by rather quickly. Yet "cobbled together" really does feel like the best phrase to describe the plot; the premise seems clear enough, but it belies a story that in actuality is thin, almost haphazard in its construction, and roundly unconvincing in multiple capacities. The movie doesn't inspire excitement so much as it does considerable skepticism: characters come together in flimsy fashions, and we never get a clear idea of who they are; scenes are written and executed with the tack of "sure, that'll work"; specific advancement of the narrative is marginally slow and a little oblique. Some shots are repeated while others have no purpose; some moments are repetitive as they are employed, and others are needlessly embellished with slow motion; no few small details decidedly raise a quizzical eyebrow.

It sounds promising from the outside looking in, but it doesn't take long to start forming an unfavorable impression, and that impression is only augmented and confirmed as the feature progresses. The single most admirable element here might be the practical effects, but what is that saying? The action-oriented climax is reasonably well done (though still not written well), but by that point, does it matter? 'Angel of death' comes off as a production where all involved were doing the bare minimum, and even at that, either not especially trying, totally incapable, or so restricted by the resources available to them as to give off those airs. "I suppose that'll do" was apparently the order of the day, but whoever was managing the project, they were emphatically mistaken, for the final cut is one instance after another of dubious craftsmanship. As indisputably fishy as some story ideas or otherwise inclusions are, somehow as the title enters the third act it still manages to become even more shady. To be blunt, my favor waned more and more over these ninety minutes until watching ultimately became a chore. There was some potential in the concept, and in a scattering of the notions herein, yet by and large the end product might the worst possible rendition of that concept. I congratulate those who get more out of the feature than I do, but the number of people who could earnestly enjoy it is surely very small. Leave 'Angel of death' for Franco devotees and those who, for better or worse, will watch anything; everyone else, move along.

Devoted cult film fanatics already know better than to pay any attention to the low ratings of obscure and infamous titles around this website, but I would still like to emphasize the fact that the miserable 2.1 out of 10 rating for "Commando Mengele" should be disregarded blindly! Despite being a total rip-off of "The Boys from Brazil", despite the involvement of reputedly awful European film-makers (like Jess Franco and Andrea Bianchi) and despite the at times intolerably high level of tackiness, this is one outrageously entertaining and delightfully provocative gem! It's a bad film but in the best possible way: dumb but never boring, full of plot holes and incoherent as can be, gory and vile but never shocking and boosting acting performances that are even worse than those in a kindergarten play. A young couple discovers the hideout place of the fugitive Nazi monster Dr. Mengele in a remote little Uruguayan mountain and promptly he doesn't like unwelcome visitors. The girl dies but this guy Marc teams up with a former nightclub dancer who Mengele selected as his mistress. Whilst awaiting green light from the Jewish Nazi-hunters commando to attack, Marc gathers together a specialist fighting unit containing an acrobat, an artillery expert, a martial arts champion and a technician, all of which have a personal score to settle with the Nazi butcher. But they'll have to hurry up, as Mengele and his sidekick Wolfgang have readily developed plans to found The Fourth Reich. "Commando Mengele" is fast-paced and full of crazy action, but you'll have the most fun spotting all the things that are just plain wrong! Like all the contradictions in the script, for example, or the fact Howard Vernon (a Jess Franco regular) didn't even bother to do some research regarding Mengele's appearance! Vernon looks and acts like his own usual self, without a fake mustache or a trying to talk with a German accent. The finale is one fantastically spectacular smörgåsbord of action and crazy twists, and in the end we STILL don't know for sure whether the bastard is dead or not! Awesome stuff.

Weird and funny action in South America film. It is the result of collaboration between two rather bright European b movies masters. And it looks more like Franco's film, than Bianchi's. It is one of those banana super actions, with jungle locations, naked women, senseless story. But it has absurd and drive indeed. It looks like comics in some parts and have lo fi special effects amusement. The characters including Howard Vernon are nice and they make that real-time two-weeks made drive. The fans of Commander Strike, Oasis of the zombies will probably love this super-improvised hallucination etc.

www.myspace.com/neizvest

An inferior and stupid action movie about the hunt for the fearsome Doctor Joseph Mengele , known member of the German Nazi party and cruel doctor of the Auschwitz concentration camp . He escaped and pursued by the Mossad took refuge in Paraguay and Brazil, after the fall of the Third Reich. There in South America get together a group of followers , militants of the Third Reich , fascist rulers to work for a Nazi rebirth and attempting to celebrate an international congress with world leaders. Mengele : Howard Vernon tries to reconstitute the Nazi movement from his sanctuary . Meanwhile , he undergoes terrible experiments and horrible clonation of genes between animals and human beings , using genetic engineering. Along the way a young contacts a Nazi Hunter: Fernando Rey , Simon Wiesental-lookalike , begining investigating and discovering the malignant plans of Mengele . Then a Jewish commando is formed for hunting the nasty Nazi War criminal. The small mercenary team : Antonio Mayans, Jack Taylor..attempts to track down the heinous Nazi by joining an expert band of specialists . The blood of millions is on his hands ... the power of evil is on his side !

Ridiculousness , silliness and shabby action abound in this inferior movie that results to be really influenced by "Boy from Brazil" 1978 with Gregory Peck as the infamous Doctor Mengele and Laurence Olivier as Simon Wiesental . This is an absurd thriller with noisy action , suspense twisted inteigue and final combat with fights , helcopters and lots of weapons . The story is boring and tiring , though entertaining at any time , being full of latent absurdities and silly mayhem. It results to be a ridiculous entry in a minor sub-genre about "Let's find the darn Nazi before he really causes trouble" and in the wake of other similar movies . The main issue is the creation of a commando to track down the ominous Nazi and his fanatic hordes of bodyguards : Chris Mitchum, Robert's son, in order to get to the main criminal , being formed by various experts on explosive , weapons , crossbow , computer wizard and a karate Man . Stars Antonio Mayans , Jack Taylor as leaders of the commando , Fernando Rey as the Jewish mastermind and Chris Mitchum as a crippled Vietnam vet who controls the nefarious underlings . And Howard Vernon is acceptable, though overacting at times, as the redoubtable , sinister Nazi practicing genetics engineering and other dangerous , sordid scientist discoveries . Along with intervention of Jesus Franco's regular actors as Jack Taylor, Shirley Knight , Lin Romay , and Antonio Mayans.

This low-grade motion picture in low budget was lousily directed by two professionals of the exploitation movies , the erotic filmmaker Andea Bianchi or Andrew White (Malabimba, Maniac Killer , Night Hair Child ,Treasure Island ,Massacre , Night Hair Child , Zombie Horror) and the legendary , prolific Jesús Franco or Jess Frank (Bloody Mon , Jack the Ripper , Orloff saga , Justine , Ilsa the Wicked Warden , Dracula versus Frankenstein , Venus in Furs , Count Dracula , 99 women, Tender Flesh , Paroxismus) . In fact, it was begun by Franco , as he directed a lot of it , but he argued with producers Marious Lesoeur , Daniel Lesoeur from Eurocine about Mengele character , as Jess left the shooting , taking the realization another director in similar style : Andrea Bianchi. Rating : 3.5/10. Two thumbs down.