L'ange de la mort

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.

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.

Doctor Mengeles, the famous nazi butcher, is still living somewhere in South America, torturing innocent young virgins and being played by Howard Vernon. A jewish commando is set up to hunt him and punish his cruel war acts, but the avengers face the wrath of the nazi lunatics, and the battle rages on until Mengele's bodyguard, a kung fu adept, gets killed. Such plots are common to Jess Franco, but this sometimes talented director should have learned that those movies aren't funny or breathtaking... They're just BORING. After all, Jess's a veteran, but he's done WAY better. Fans be warned, this ain't a good one, and if you don't know Franco, don't try to get familiar with him with this one, try something else, like Faceless or Bloody Moon.

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.

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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.