Sick Product of a Sick System

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of Yul Brynner's least known films and the last film he made. Death Rage has Brynner as Peter Marciani, retired hit man that is force out of retirement to avenge the death of his murdered brother. Marciani (Brynner) goes to Naples and after the man he learn killed his brother, mafia kingpin Gennaro Gallo.The film is fine generally speaking: not great but it is not horrible but it is the storyline that that seems to be lacking something to me and I'm not sure what - maybe a little bit more action scenes and a little less talking at times? My point being: the film needed some "spice" that it lacked to make this film stand out better. Really the only thing to make this film stand out is Yul Brynner himself - and that's it.If you like 1970s crime-action films you might like this one but just remember this film could use a wee bit more action... also if you are a fan of Yul Brynner's then I would recommend the film to you.5/10

Yul Brynner stars as a retired mafia hit-man who is called out of retirement to avenge his brother's death. Packing up his fishing pole in New York, he returns to Italy where he confronts the man who killed his brother and his associates, while taking on an apprentice and picking up a lady.This film had two things working against it: most notably, horrible picture quality. If anything wasn't completely filling the screen, you couldn't always tell what it was supposed to be. This made it difficult to recognize characters, especially when we were looking at things fro ma distance. For the most part, I was able to adjust. But also, this film lacks blood. People get shot from guns with invisible bullets, to grab invisible wounds and fall as they bleed invisible blood. That's some cheap special effects! I guess the "R" rating was used for the nudity, which is nothing spectacular when the camera can't stay focused.The story itself was decent, and a time-honored tradition in mafia films. Revenge. Maybe that plot gets old for you, but I think it worked quite well here. And the characters were alright. Someone said they weren't surprised this was Brynner's last starring role... I liked him. His apprentice was also alright and the cop was a nice touch (more on this in a moment).One running theme I liked was the triangle between Brynner, the police and the mafia. The police knew Brynner was there to kill a man (and in fact kills several people) and in one scene the chief even has a lunch with him. The message he sends is "be careful" rather than "you're breaking the law". Now, I understand the point: mafia crime is cleaned up without the police being involved, and because Brynner's an American they can just say he escaped and not waste time on a manhunt. But I still find it hard to believe cops just let killers roam the streets.My judgment: not a bad film, if someone would provide the labor of love to clean it up. Maybe even a remake is in order, although with all the other mafia and revenge films out there, it's not really one that would stand out. If Brynner is still alive, maybe have him in a cameo role. But seriously, if you can tolerate poor filming and like this type of thing, not a bad picture.

I don't know much about Yul Brynner ("The King and I" and "Taras Bulba" and all that). Because of his shaved head, he used to get a lot of notoriety. Today, everyone has a shaved head. He did have that deep voice and piercing eyes. He's a very good actor and a pretty masculine presence. This movie is so easy to figure out and so dull, that he's not given much to do. He, of course, is trying to avenge the death of his brother, during some race track intrigue with people shooting trotters and pushing them off their game. It's like thousands of other films. We wait for the showdown, we have a minor character who must become a man and show his stuff. It's not that it's a terrible movie. It just seems slow moving and ordinary.

The "Chilling Classics" 50-movie pack was staring me down like a salivating jackal as I stood in the horror aisle of Circuit City, contemplating the pros (50 movies for dirt cheap!) and cons (probably crap quality as a result). My inner consumer scanned the titles on the back of the package, and was intrigued enough to hand over the greenbacks. First flick: "Death Rage," a Naples-set crime thriller starring stoic bald superman Yul Brynner, an ex-hit man who is brought back into the world of organized crime to avenge his brother's murder--car chases ensue; an unlikely pupil is taught the ways of contract killing; a blonde sex kitten (Barbara Bouchet, from "Don't Torture a Duckling") falls for our chrome-domed hero; and Martin Balsam shows up to pay the rent. Director Anthony M. Dawson (really Antonio Margheriti) keeps the pace moving along, and stages some good (if ridiculously unrealistic) action sequences. And Brynner's performance is a wooden hoot... While "Death Rage" is hardly brilliant, it is low-budget, low-down fun.