Such a frustrating disappointment

Nice effects though.

hyped garbage

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

When the spaghetti western genre died in Italy, spaghetti western star Lee Van Cleef went to Israel and made a couple of westerns there, "God's Gun" and "Kid Vengeance", which I just watched. It's a pretty cheap-looking affair - producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were pinching pennies even back then. But despite the low budget, the movie is surprisingly involving. It's surprisingly grim, with Van Cleef making a great villain. Surprisingly, a lot of the grimness comes from Leif Garrett, who you may not believe is quite good as an innocent youth who is so traumatized by the murder of his parents that he starts to hunt down and kill (in sometimes brutal ways) the gang members responsible. Jim Brown is also good in a sympathetic role, one that refreshingly doesn't make his race an issue. Maybe this isn't a fabulous western, but if you are a fan of European westerns, chances are you'll find this kosher western very entertaining.

I have to grit my teeth (grit-grit) when I read the putdown of this movie. Sure, it is another vengeance adventure and, sure, there are goings-on that have gone on before, but the sum total is - it is some picture, and I mean that in a positive way.The opening scene with the Easter bunny - well, I saw this on Maundy Thursday - was too realistic, as was the rape of the mother, viewed by the audience at a distance, but by her son as a close-up. He also witnessed the killing of his father, a combination that demanded, yes, demanded, retribution.Said youngster was ex-heartthrob Leif Garrett who was excellent in a role that put him on screen most of the time. Lee Van Cleef was on the screen for a short period of time and was his usual brooding s.o.b. self. He was an expert.His gang of heartless bad guys, and there was a gang of them, were, as they were supposed to be, totally obnoxious.The other star, of course, was ex-footballer, Jim Brown (no stranger to westerns) doing a very fine job as the mad, brooding hero of the piece."Kid Vengeance" - no kidding - is a western - an Israeli western yet -- oy vay - that will keep your attention from beginning to end. Don't - er - passover (yuk-yuk) this one. And, fie (ancient Roman for foo, or fooey) to those who dismiss this item.

Young Leif Garrett watches helplessly while his parents are murdered and his sister taken by a savage band of grimy cutthroats led by Van Cleef, who looks like a hippie with full facial growth, earring, long hair, and headband (probably holding the hair extensions in place), and Robert Morley. (best remembered for waking up next to a horse head in The Godfather)Garrett tracks the bandits and begins to slay them one by one before teaming up with gold miner Jim Brown to finish them off.Not a spaghetti western, this was an Isreali production made in Isreal by Golan-Globus, who did a better job (Van Cleef too) with God's Gun.Most people agree that Lee Van Cleef's career in westerns ended with a whimper, but I thought it was okay. Too bad that in the following twelve years nobody got him back in the saddle with a six-shooter. It would have been great having seen Lee Van Cleef on a horse in the action packed eighties.

There was a brief flourishing during the Seventies of using the Negev desert in Israel as location for the filming of westerns. I imagine that now with those rockets flowing from the Gaza, no film company wants to go there. In any event I suppose you could call these things bagel westerns.Quality wise they're not all that different from some of the mediocre European spaghetti westerns being churned out on that continent, even with American players like Lee Van Cleef, John Marley, and Jim Brown starring in them.Kid Vengeance stars a kid, Leif Garrett in the days right before he became a pop bubblegum teen idol. Van Cleef and Marley and their gang kill his father and kill and rape his mother and sister Glynis O'Connor stows away on their outlaw wagon. Talk about not too much smarts.Anyway young Leif is out for blood, but the most androgynous teen idol until Michael Jackson never really makes you feel he's all that bloodthirsty. Garrett also meets Jim Brown, a miner who the outlaws have robbed and left tied up and stretched out to die. Garrett comes him free and the two of them join forces to get the gang that did them dirt.The climax which I can't reveal is hokey beyond belief, the most unbelievable western showdown ever filmed. This film just might have killed the Israeli western business more than the Arabs.