I saw this pretty much back to back with Fabrizio De Angelis's THE LAST MATCH (a film made 12 years later but with much of the same crew), and while they're both "bad" action movies which I happen to absolutely love, I have to admit I enjoyed them for very different reasons. While LAST MATCH was fun because of the ludicrous heights of its bad-ness, TOUGH TO KILL is a great movie because it uses its badness to dig a filthy hole in the ground and wallow in it.
I love absolutely gritty, dirty, low budget movies like this (or any of the many Italian Women-In-Prison or Nazi Exploitation films made around the same time) because it's all completely fantasic. It's like being transported to a completely different world with its own sense of reality. In TOUGH TO KILL, human life isn't so important as getting rich, and the lure of 1 million dollars causes the 4 main characters to rip each other to pieces even though they need to depend on each other to survive in the harsh African wilderness. Like the other reviewer said, you can't get much more macho with lots of guys running around without shirts (even Donald O'Brien, who I'd always assumed was wimp before this movie) and scarcely one woman in the entire movie. There's explosions, killing, maiming, etc. but none too graphic and the action scenes are also pretty scarce. What this film has though are some great African locations and a tightly-constructed plot that will draw you in if you get past the initial trashiness of the production. By the end of the movie I was actually rooting out loud for the hero to get the money, and I'm not sure if the surprise ending was exactly what I wanted, but it was pretty damn close. Have fun seeking out this gem and enjoy!
This film is VASTLY superior to many of D'amato's other films of the time and featuring a very similar Stelvio Cipriani score to the one used in THE GREAT ALLIGATOR a year later.
I love absolutely gritty, dirty, low budget movies like this (or any of the many Italian Women-In-Prison or Nazi Exploitation films made around the same time) because it's all completely fantasic. It's like being transported to a completely different world with its own sense of reality. In TOUGH TO KILL, human life isn't so important as getting rich, and the lure of 1 million dollars causes the 4 main characters to rip each other to pieces even though they need to depend on each other to survive in the harsh African wilderness. Like the other reviewer said, you can't get much more macho with lots of guys running around without shirts (even Donald O'Brien, who I'd always assumed was wimp before this movie) and scarcely one woman in the entire movie. There's explosions, killing, maiming, etc. but none too graphic and the action scenes are also pretty scarce. What this film has though are some great African locations and a tightly-constructed plot that will draw you in if you get past the initial trashiness of the production. By the end of the movie I was actually rooting out loud for the hero to get the money, and I'm not sure if the surprise ending was exactly what I wanted, but it was pretty damn close. Have fun seeking out this gem and enjoy!
This film is VASTLY superior to many of D'amato's other films of the time and featuring a very similar Stelvio Cipriani score to the one used in THE GREAT ALLIGATOR a year later.