Death Rage (1976)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A trite crime story about revenge, with a handful of known actors, one of them an aging Brynner overacting as a vengeful Italo-American, who has a younger thug as sidekick and disciple; a few car chases, nice landscapes and sets, lots of murders, a general atmosphere of sleaze, many mindless Italian policemen, a barely sketched plot, the most unlikable thing is Brynner's dire role, with his outlandish look and weird demeanor, in an eminently physical role, done carelessly and senselessly.Perhaps a well-meant vehicle for Brynner, but he's the worst here.So, ineffective nastiness. Still, you can see some nice Italian places. The plot seems generally meaningless.

I can only imagine that Death Rage was meant as some sort of cash in on the success of Yul Brynner's earlier movies because as a film in its own right, it really is severely lacking. This is actually quite a surprise too as it's directed by Antonio Margheriti who, while certainly in the 'B' category of Italian directors active in the seventies, still made some very good films with the likes of Schoolgirl Killer and Danse Macabre. This, however, is not one of his finer hours. The plot is just your average everyday story of a hit-man looking for revenge on someone that he is close to; in this case, it's the death of his brother and on the way to his revenge he falls in love with a stripper played by Barbara Bouchet. Yul Brynner often gets the "hard man" act spot on; but personally I find him to be uncharismatic and I can't really say I'm a fan. The main reason I saw this film is because of the inclusion of the beautiful Barbara Bouchet; but unfortunately for me (and the rest of the red blooded male audience) she is sadly underused. There's a fair bit of action in the film, but to be honest I couldn't really care about it as the plot line is so boring. The film hasn't exactly won itself a good reputation in the thirty years since it was made and I'm not surprised about that. I can't really say there's any good reason to see this film.

Before surrendering himself completely to touring with The King And I as completely as Bela Lugosi surrendered to being Dracula or James O'Neill surrendered to being The Count of Monte Cristo, Yul Brynner made this final farewell screen appearance in this very mediocre gangster thriller.Along for the ride on this wild turkey is Barbara Bouchet as Brynner's gangster girl friend, Martin Balsam as the Italian police inspector in Naples and Italian pop star Massimo Ranieri as Brynner's apprentice hit-man.Brynner is a retired hit-man that gets brought back into the active Mafia by news that a top Naples crime boss ordered and carried out a hit on Brynner's brother. Brynner leaves New York and plots his revenge.All that distinguishes Death Rage is some nice location cinematography of Naples in the mid seventies. All those seventies fashions are there as well, I can hardly believe I wore some of that. The Americans look bored and just walk through the roles, the Italian players are poorly dubbed in English.Death Rage is for die-hard fans of Yul Brynner only.

I found Death Rage to be a fun little Euro-crime movie that's much better than it's reputation would suggest (or at least better than many of the reviews I've read). Yul Brynner plays Peter Marciani, an aging hit-man hired to go to Italy to kill a mob boss. At first he refuses until he learns that his intended target is responsible for his brother's death. Along the way, he meets and befriends a young, overly helpful, wannabe mobster and a beautiful showgirl. Can these three pull off the job? Quite simply, Yul Brynner is the man! He brings a certain authenticity and coolness to Marciani and makes most of the film a blast. I bought into his hit-man persona completely. When confronted by two hoods wanting to take him to see their boss, Marciani calmly says "If I were you, I'd shoot." One of the hoods tells Marciani that he's worth more alive. Marciani's response – "If I were you I'd still shoot". How classic is that! Death Rage also features a number of exciting car chases and gun battles in the narrow street of Naples. These scenes are exciting and very well done.The film co-stars Barbara Bouchet. For the most part, she is underutilized and most of the scenes involving her are too predictable. You just know that at some point the bad guys are going to use her to get to Marciani. Also, I never really believed the relationship between Marciani and Bouchet's character. The two made a ridiculous looking couple.Finally, I can't really end this without mentioning the subplot involving a problem with Marciani's eyes that, I suppose, relate to the film's title in some way. These scenes are pointless and go nowhere. Can you say "padding"? While I've rated Death Rage a 6/10, I'm almost positive that my rating would change if I ever have the opportunity to see an uncut copy of the film. My copy of Death Rage has a runtime more than 15 minutes less than that listed on IMDb.