tilapia

Early western entry by one of Italy's finest directors - Enzo G. Castellari. If you're expecting something epic, like his western masterpiece Keoma, have another thought coming: this is a goofy western comedy very much in the Terrance Hill/Bud Spencer territory. Being such a juvenile movie, i'm surprised that Castellari's next film High Crime would turn out so serious.

Young con man Tedeum inherits a gold mine, and knowing his con men relatives he's sure it's worthless. He teams up with a sleazy ex-con turned monk and tries to sell the worthless mine to some poor sucker. Soon his family finds out that the mine is real and full of gold: will they get to him before he sells the mine to the evil major and his henchmen?

Although no Trinity, the movie works fairly good. It looks pretty good, have some pretty funny characters and a really catchy theme song (I can't get it out of my mind!). The plot is really simple, but suits the lightweight comedy fine. The movie made me laugh a few times, even though I insist that its got waaay too much slapstick humor for its own good.

6/10

I saw an undubbed/non-subtitled version of this René Cardona wrestling flick, so naturally my judgment is kind of clouded. It's very similiar to the director's former Night Of The Bloody Apes, although there is very little gore and nudity. The sets, story, style have the same feel and the rapist man/monkey monster has a small part. A mad doctor is using a super-strong robot to kidnap various people (probably politcians or rich industrialists, as usual). Somehow a female wrestler and her cop boyfriend finds out about the doctors diabolic plans and runs to the rescue. The robot itself is just a big Mexican with silver color sprayed on his face. His whole act concists of walking through cardboard walls and sink people with one fatal blow. I lost track of how many cardboard doors and walls he must have walked through during the film's brief 90 minutes, but it must have exceeded 20+. Although I loved the robot and the wrestling, amongst other things, the movie has far too much dialouge for its own good, making it pretty dull for non-Spanish talking people like me. Thus, I cannot really recommend this film to others than Hispanic viewers or fans of Mexican wrestling.

Sicilian Connection's basic idea is to follow a large shipment of opium from turkey to Italy and then, finally, to America. Joe Coppolla, a small-time dealer trying to make it big-time, is the egocentric and unsympathetic lead character and owner of the shipment. Will he succeed in selling the drugs or will the police or the mafia get to him first? Wooden acting, awful dubbing, uninspired camerawork and bad direction made me not care at all...

If you're a fan of Italian crime movies and seen all the classics (like Castellari's fantastic movie High Crime), this might do the trick. In fact ANYTHING would to the trick. Sicilian Connection is for italian crime buffs what warm, cheap beer might be for an alcoholic: It will take the urge away for a while, but it won't give you any real satisfaction. Addicts take note, others better stay far, far way.

3/10