It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

When you look at this movie it's concept and settings you should think that it will turn out to be one of the most entertaining things ever. It really has all of the right ingredients in it to make a good, spectacular and enjoyable movie out of but in fact I was more annoyed by this movie than entertained.Problem with this movie is that it's a very messy one story-wise. I'm sorry, I just couldn't discover a clear main plot-line in this and I tried really hard to because I really wanted to like watching this film. Half of the time I couldn't even tell what was going on, just because I couldn't care about any of it. I just never got into this movie while watching.Anothing thing that this movie suffers heavily from is that it doesn't seem to able to make up its mind what it is trying to be. At times the movie feels like a goofy comedy, while at others it's obviously trying to be a more straight-forward adventure/action movie. Both of these approaches don't exactly strengthen one another. Perhaps this is mostly due to the James Bond background of director Peter R. Hunt. He has worked on many different James Bond movies, in many different ways, throughout the decades. James Bond movies, especially the older ones, also are the type of movies that the one moment doesn't take itself very seriously, while at the other it is still trying to be a good and clever spy thriller/action flick. This approach works for most of the James Bond movies and make them real fun to watch but this approach completely falls flat for "Shout at the Devil". And speaking of James Bond, the main character in this movie is being played by Roger Moore, which is not a coincidence of course. And I'm sorry but whenever I see Roger Moore in an '70's or '80's movie I can't see him as anyone else than James Bond. It doesn't help much that Moore hasn't tried to play many different sort of roles throughout his career and he just doesn't seem to have a very wide range as an actor. Luckily the movie also has Lee Marvin in it, who is much better and also way more fun to watch.Not half as good or entertaining as I was hoping and expecting it to be.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

On the whole, this is a mostly faithful adaptation of Wilbur Smith's novel and a cracking adventure story.Shortly before the outbreak of World War One, Irish poacher Flynn recruits a clueless, upper-class Englishman named Sebastian to help him steal ivory from German-occupied territory in Africa. For a while, the pair make a great team and succeed at humiliating the local German officer, Fleisher - but the fun comes to a sudden end when war is declared and Fleisher gets a chance for revenge.As others have mentioned, this is definitely a film of two halves, as much as the book was. But the rollicking pace and sweeping storyline offer all manner of scrapes and situations that the film is never less than enjoyable. Lee Marvin is thoroughly amusing as the drunken poacher who flits between immature outbursts at those around him and total inebriation. Roger Moore is also impressive as Flynn's opposite, Sebastian, whose a gentleman at first but quickly learns to toughen up as the story becomes more serious.Supporting characters are also memorable, with Fleisher a mixture of comical and nastiness. Barbara Parkins plays Flynn's daughter and Sebastian's romantic interest with fiestiness and Ian Holm is amusing as Flynn's mute assistant Mohammed.In terms of action, the film has plenty to offer; gunfights, fistfights, shipwrecks and man-eating crocs for a start. This is all edited in the same frantic style that Peter Hunt's 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' was, giving a lot of energy to the film. I also love Maurice Jarre's score for 'Shout at the Devil'; epic and tense.While 'Shout at the Devil' is a cracking yarn and I have loved it since I was little, the bad news is that no decent version currently exists on DVD. German characters (who spoke English in the film) have now been dubbed into German, which is one thing... but no subtitles(!) mean that entire scenes become useless and impossible to follow for the rest of us.There is of course the issue of running time and to be honest I can't remember if I've actually seen the full version or not (it's been a while). Some TV companies have been known to show the full version and, because of the awful DVD versions, it's a case of pot-luck that anyone sees the film as it should be (I personally have held onto a VHS recording from 1988 which is wearing very thin now).

In SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, Roger Moore and Lee Marvin are a pair of misfits living in Africa just before World War 1. Moore is an elephant poacher and Marvin is a drunk living with his adult daughter (Barbara Parkins) in what is now Tanzania. Marvin and Moore fight over any little thing, not the least of which is the delectable daughter. But then they must work together to defeat the Germans at the onset of World War I. Seems the Germans have a battleship anchored in the cove, for repairs. At the behest of the British government, Marvin and Moore seek to destroy the ship before it can relaunch. Because of its age and director (Britisher Peter Hunt), the film looks creaky as all hell today. The fights are clumsily staged. The sincerity of the plot is questionable. Only Parkins seems to feel she is acting in a drama. Moore and Marvin play their parts very broadly. Even with bodies dropping like flies and both Moore and Marvin periodically being injured, you're not so sure this isn't a comedy. Is it worth a look? Not really.

Contains spoilers.Perhaps it was the fault of my DVD edition, but this film just seemed totally haphazard. It starts off well as a comic period drama, with a leering Roger Moore being signed up to help smuggle ivory through German East Africa. But it soon rapidly falls apart. Several scenes are repeated to the point of tedium, ie the stereotypical swaggering Prussian officer shouting at his men (and why are so many scenes in German without subtitles?) and the Colonel being bribed with cases of gin. There is however a very funny scene where Roger Moore impersonates a German tax collector. The first half of the film rambles along without pace. After the death of the baby the film picks up pace but by this time loses all its humour and becomes a darker thriller. Even Roger Moore is unhumourous in the second half. Lee Marvin, with his white hair, stubble and shambolic manner seem to adopt the 'granpappy with red underwear' acting style of the Westerns. Overall the film lacks pace and editing and is about half an hour too long. A disappointme