Search - Mad Dog Killer (aka Beast With A Gun) on DVD

Passable Italian Crime Flick

Stanley Runk | Camp North Pines | 06/07/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There's nothing like a good Helmut Berger movie....that's what I always say. In Mad Dog Killer he's Nanni Vitali, a violent criminal who's just escaped from the slammer with a few of his flunkies. He kills a guy responsible for his incarceration, rapes Marisa Mell and tries to get her help in a large robbery before he escapes to Venezuela. Meanwhile he's pursued relentlessly by cop, Richard Harrison. That's more or less what it all is.

There are many good Italian crime films, but this one isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure it's not terribly original, but I don't mind that. What I mind is that a movie based around the concept of an out of control psycho on a rampage presents us with one rather limp noodle villain. Berger's performance isn't terrible, but his character is weasley, wimpy, and really not all that violent. Numerous times throughout the film, Harrison is calling him a coward, and as the viewer you really begin to see what he means. Sure he's an unpleasant character, but no so in that interesting way that keeps our eyes glued to the screen like with Albert Ganz(James Remar) in 48 HRS or Mr. Joshua(Gary Busey) from Lethal Weapon. Those two(Remar especially) come across as way more "mad dog" than Berger. Plus the film isn't near as violent as the quotes on the box would have you believe.

I certainly wouldn't say it's a boring movie, and it does have it's moments, that's why I gave it 3 stars. But writer/director Sergio Grieco(who did The Sinful Nuns Of Saint Valentine, and who hasn't seen that flick?) certainly is no threat to Enzo Castellari or Sergio Sollima."