User reviews

Even though I found it strangely watchable, you've got to wonder why Joe D'Amato bothered making this one. It's an action film without hardly any action, set in a jungle with barely any jungle trouble, full of tough guys who mainly threaten each other rather than doing anything.

I suppose there's a mystery element to it if you've just woken up out of a sixty year long coma - Luc Merenda arrives in a foreign country, puts something in a bank vault, seemingly sheds his identity and signs up for a bunch of white mercenaries fighting in an African civil war. Is Merenda there just to make a quick buck or is he there for some other reasons?

Donald O'Brien is the Major in charge of this outfit that includes a guy with a rabbit, an Irish guy, and a snivelling fat guy. That's just about all you need to know about this lot as all that jungle fighting you'd be expecting from this film is dispensed as the plot becomes a fight for a one million dollar bounty. And lots of walking across harsh landscapes. There's one, slight, gun battle, and that's used as a pretext for our main characters to do a runner.

Throw in some racism towards Africans (although D'Amato does try and turn this around in the finale) and you've got a weirdly flat action film that's carried mainly by Donald O'Brien's hard-ass character. Luc Merenda just sort of scowls at everything. With a film like this, full of unlikable characters, I still didn't hate it. I'll put that down to D'Amato's skill as a director.

When I think about it, D'Amato does seem to do that from time to time - go from one extreme to another. One film is full of gory carnage, the next full of naked ladies, then this is full of not much at all.

1st watched 11/23/2002 - 5 out of 10(Dir-Joe D'Amato): Ok action-adventure film with unexpected twist at the end. This Italian film seems like it's trying to sell itself as a Rambo-type movie but it's less of a shoot-em-up and more of an adventure. A `white' mercenary is hired to be one of the guys in the troup but then return an enemy or the proof that this enemy is dead. As members of the troupe catch on to what's really happening they become an interested party to the mercenary's task but then they start dropping like flies and we're left with only a handful. This movie is more about the interaction of that handful, but the problem is that their actions are predictable and characteristic of their type of character in the film. So we basically know what's going to happen until the surprise ending. The ending is kind of a retaliation to how the movie treated the blacks in the story, and this part I liked. But overall, the whole movie is not quite worth the effort to get to the end.

Duri a morire (a.k.a. Tough To Kill) is a movie with a set of balls so large that they drag on the ground. Sam Peckinpah probably would have left the theater with a tear in his eye if he had ever had the chance to see this D'Amato outing.

The story, a simple one, concerns Martin, a small-time mafia hitman, who receives word on where he can locate a high-profile political assassin. The bounty on the man is up to one million dollars. The assassin has been doing mercenary work in the jungles of Africa to earn some extra cash. With very little effort, Martin manages to infiltrate the merc squad and gains access to the assassin.

Martin, and four others, use a routine attack on a bridge to take the assassin hostage. They set off into the jungle for their rendezvous in Georgeville. They won't all make it. Along for the journey is a congenial villager who seems to act as the group's guardian angel.. or is he?

Excellent cinematography helps to pump this film up a little but the bad dialogue manages to deflate it again. What I really enjoyed about Duri a morire was the way D'Amato introduced each of the mercenaries, gave them each a distinct personality, then played with them. He never allows the audience to form a solid opinion of them. I also enjoyed the ending which took me completely by surprise, even despite DAmato's various hints throughout the movie.

In closing, Duri a morire is a gritty, low-budget film about brooding men with enough machismo, chest-beating and testosterone for any two Nick Gomez movies. If you you can get around all the violence and silly, tough-guy, one-liners you might actually get a kick out of this film. I sure did!

With a threadbare jungle mercenary script, a touch of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", zero nudity, and zero blood, this is a tough watch. Character development is nil, and the film is mostly aimless walking around in the jungle, by men who we care nothing about. The highlights would include a game of chicken with grenades, and a surprise ending. The lowlights would include a bloodless decapitation, gratuitous explosions, a stock footage cheetah, and a plot that hinges on someone having a million dollar price on their head, who we know nothing about. "Tough to Kill" is tough to watch, for obvious reasons. Not recommended, even for admirers of low budget exploitation. - MERK

(1978) Tough To Kill/ Duri a morire SPAGHETTI ADVENTURE/ WAR DUBBED

Cinematography, co-written and directed by Joe D'Amoto known for directing a great portion of low budget erotic horror films, or quickie made movies, has him involved directing a semi- war movie that has Martin (Luc Merenda ) joining a group of mercenaries for the purpose of bringing a specific someone among their regimen to collect a 1 million bounty on his head which the major soon finds out upon going on a mission. The ending can be seen a mile away by going through some minor racial boundaries to satisfy skeptics making it overall almost pointless!

I saw this pretty much back to back with Fabrizio De Angelis's THE LAST MATCH (a film made 12 years later but with much of the same crew), and while they're both "bad" action movies which I happen to absolutely love, I have to admit I enjoyed them for very different reasons. While LAST MATCH was fun because of the ludicrous heights of its bad-ness, TOUGH TO KILL is a great movie because it uses its badness to dig a filthy hole in the ground and wallow in it.

I love absolutely gritty, dirty, low budget movies like this (or any of the many Italian Women-In-Prison or Nazi Exploitation films made around the same time) because it's all completely fantasic. It's like being transported to a completely different world with its own sense of reality. In TOUGH TO KILL, human life isn't so important as getting rich, and the lure of 1 million dollars causes the 4 main characters to rip each other to pieces even though they need to depend on each other to survive in the harsh African wilderness. Like the other reviewer said, you can't get much more macho with lots of guys running around without shirts (even Donald O'Brien, who I'd always assumed was wimp before this movie) and scarcely one woman in the entire movie. There's explosions, killing, maiming, etc. but none too graphic and the action scenes are also pretty scarce. What this film has though are some great African locations and a tightly-constructed plot that will draw you in if you get past the initial trashiness of the production. By the end of the movie I was actually rooting out loud for the hero to get the money, and I'm not sure if the surprise ending was exactly what I wanted, but it was pretty damn close. Have fun seeking out this gem and enjoy!

This film is VASTLY superior to many of D'amato's other films of the time and featuring a very similar Stelvio Cipriani score to the one used in THE GREAT ALLIGATOR a year later.

What can I say about this film which hasnt already been said. Its a gritty, sleazy, cheap, but completely gripping action action thriller. You will be on the edge of your seat as the cast of completely unlikeable characters tear eachother to peices over a million dollar bounty. The pounding score and grimy setting really add to this nihilistic little nugget. This film proves that given a decent script and cast Joe D'Amato can really deliver the goods. A must see for fans of grimy jungle action thrillers and/or italian cinema.

Luc Merenda joins up with a group of mercenaries in some undisclosed African country. He decides to go on a mission with them, but secretly does so hoping to snag a guy with a million dollar bounty on his head. Some of the other mercenaries find out and want in on the deal, needless to say it's not long before greed gets the better of them. Directed and co-written by prolific, infamous, misunderstood Joe D'Amato, this macho action film is one of his less sleazy (not UNsleazy, just less so), more comprehensible films. It's also one of the director's best films and any fan of Italian B-movie cinema will probably like it. It's a travesty that the DVD of the movie is so horrid.

My Grade: B

DVD Extras: Hmmmm.. we get..nope, nothing (worse than that, the video on the DVD looks to be VHS quality, and the sound is VERY sub-par)

Tough to Kill (1978)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Italian war flick has Luc Merenda playing our military hero who joins a bunch of cut-throats being led by the evil Major Hagerty (Donald O'Brien). Soon the men head out through the jungles into enemy territory so that they can blow up a dam but along the way they learn that one of the men are wanted and have a million dollar price tag on their head. While this film is certainly forgettable in the long run, there's no doubt that it's pretty entertaining to watch. D'Amato does a pretty good job at keeping everything moving after a slow first twenty-minutes. We don't really get much character development but the actors at least bring their characters to life and make them fun to watch. The film has an ultra low budget so one shouldn't expect anything on a grand scale but I admire the film for doing so much for such a little price tag. The movie manages to be entertaining thanks in large part to the actors who really dig deep in their roles and at least seem to be having fun. Pretty much each character is some sort of stereotype but that's okay simply because of the fun factor. O'Brien really stands out as the evil Major who likes proving his braveness by challenging men to stand on top of a grenade. Merenda is also entertaining as the rebel fighting who stands up for whatever is right and doesn't care who he battles. The actual story isn't the greatest in the world but it at least gives the characters something to do and gets us through the 90-minutes. There's certainly nothing groundbreaking or special here but if you're looking for some Euro fun then this movie is certainly better than a lot of the stuff out there.

Among hundred of porno drama's and pure hardcore, Aristide Massachessi made some non-sexual films. This one is the example of non-sexual Caribbean action-adventure film. It was the first film that the director made on the locations of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic in 1978). Great exhausted of heat and voodoo faces of Donald O Brien and other members of crew did their best to make a pure fighting and absorbing hallucination-film. The story is about Africa The plot takes place in Africa, although you can see a lot of 100% Caribbean views those tiny streets, jungles, too much light and extremely good Caribbean funk music as score. The great deal of black actors, make this film look cool. There is a magnificent scene with soldiers going through river when terrible rain is falling- which looks better than such moments of "Nowdays Apocalypse". So, for all Damato's fans- this one is highly recommended.

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