For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

KILLING MACHINE is a low budget thriller made as a Spanish/Mexican co-production. It's about an everyday trucker who runs foul of the usual mafia types and suffers the murder of his wife in a burning truck as a result. What follows is a mix of cameos from aged actors (Richard Jaeckel, Aldo Sambrell, Willie Aames) alongside local talent (Frank Brana and Hugo Stiglitz), some gritty action sequences, political subtext, and the usual dubbed performances. The hero of this one is Jorge Rivero, once a muscular beefcake star of the 1970s, now decidedly middle-aged.I actually found KILLING MACHINE better than expect given the resources available. The opening part is slow but keeps you watching, while the action hits hard throughout and there's little sentiment or wishy-washy stuff. Lee Van Cleef plays a lawyer but brings a suitable air of menace to his part. The main problem with it is the lack of availability of a decent print; as it stands it's fuzzy throughout and would benefit from improvement. It's hardly the kind of film you'd want to go to the effort of watching again, but it does the job well enough for a one-off viewing.

Just some few comments and justifications about the plot.The french unionist are also farmers. Historically, last four or five decades, every time french farmers are in strike or perform any protest about their salaries or because of low prize of their products they use to destroy the trucks and or the fruits from Spain because in their opinion Spaniards are unfair producers (best prices, best weather, more production, best quality). French police use to be absent during these vandalic acts.Under the UE laws there no reasons to make this, but it still happens occasionally. However nowadays it is more usual see French farmers stopping lorries importing farm produce from Spain, Portugal and Morocco, in a border protest over what they call unfair price competition.Sometimes farmers parked tractors to block several roads near the borders. The farmers' protests over food prices have disrupted traffic across France every year.The movie is time-located just in worst years of the Spanish-French farmers relations.

What can I say? First of all no stars for this turkey. I saw Killing Machine on one of those old '80s videocassette deals hosted by Sybil Danning. She is actually the best thing about the program, because the movie stinks big time! It is billed on the video box to star Lee Van Cleef, Richard Jaeckel, Willie Aames, and Margaux Hemingway. They are more like guest stars, because the real star is some Spanish bum that I've never seen before and never want to see again. Its supposed to be about a truck driver that is attacked by French unionists: they kill his wife, and he goes after them. It is never fully explained why the unionists are angry at the truck drivers other than the fact that they carry fruit that is evil (I guess...like I said...It is never explained). Lee Van Cleef plays a lawyer (!) that covers things up for the union. There's an interesting scene that is supposed to be in a courtroom, but it looks like the scene was shot in a cheap conference room in some warehouse. Cleef was very old here, so the idea of him being some kind of tough guy is demolished by his aged appearance. Hemingway looks astonishingly bad, and her acting reflects her awful appearance. Richard Jaeckel (mispelled?) makes the worst performance by William Shatner look good, and Willie Aames is annoying as always. Aames had passed over his teenage good looks, so there isn't even anything good to look at. I heard later that he bottomed out on drugs and converted to Christianity (no small favor for movies...stay out, Willie!) PLEASE SKIP THIS TRASH! UPDATE 08/04/05: I originally voted this the worst film I saw in 2005, but then I saw High Tension and changed my mind.

This minor Euro-actioner was released in the greedy 80's on Sybil Dannings' Adventure Video label in those great big old cereal box video cases. Although this was made quickly and cheaply, and before it becomes a standard revenge action melodrama, this is a fairly absorbing drama as Jorge Rivero seeks revenge against Lee Van Cleef after his cohorts cause a disruption during some labor wars which results in the death of his wife (the lovely Ana Orbregon). These international films are always amusing alone just for the eclectic cast members. Somehow Willie Aames (who collected more than a few cheques in Grade Z Euro-Trash after "Eight is Enough" was cancelled) is Ana's BROTHER. Plus, Rivero gets some assistance from doomed starlet Margaux Hemingway against the diabolical Julot. There is nothing special in the acting or (certainly) directing department (check out the sloppily-edited car explosion sequence), but it does get a few shots in the arm with some scenes of our main man, Lee Van Cleef. Before he goes into court over some misdealings perpetrated by his henchman (Richard Jaeckel!), in his typically dry-voiced demanour and eagle-eyed glance, he says, "You guys are getting too public. I don't like it." You know he means business.