Expected more

Crappy film

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Vitali (Helmet Berger) and three of his friends escape from prison. Their plan is to change cars, get money, get papers, and leave the country...after they enact revenge on the snitch and the judge etc.The restoration wasn't there. The plot had wholes and the characters all came across as idiots. How did Rome conquer the world again? Worth a pass.Available on a 50 DVD pack.Guide: F-word, rape, sex, nudity (Marisa Mell, Marina Giordana)

Oof! This is an Italian crime film that really has a nasty edge to it. Helmet Berger is a career criminal who escaps from jail with some buddies, gives a prison guard a kicking and throws him out of car, runs cop Richard Harrison off the road (not before Harrison plugs one of the escapees in the head), beats two men in a petrol station almost to death, grabs the snitch that landed him in jail, rapes his girlfriend, beats the guy to death, and buries him in lime. This all happens within the first fifteen minutes of the film. Berger's mental with a capital M, and is out to get enough money to get out of the country, so he enlists the snitch's girlfriend against her will to set up a heist involving getting money from her father, but she doesn't take too well to being raped and goes to Harrison, who can think of nothing else but snapping Berger's neck. Much violence, hostage taking, and beatings ensue, and believe it or not the film manages to get even more nasty as it progresses, as the final scenes in a warehouse involve a guy getting shot multiple times in the face and a girl being tortured with a straight razor. Harrison (of the insanely great Ninja Terminator, and many other films with Ninja in the title) is basically a ball of rage who won't stop till he's got his man, but the film really belongs to Berger, who plays a man who has no rules and barely a soul (although he does meet with his sister and treats her nicely enough). He beats, stabs, shoots, and rapes to get what he wants, and those cold Tuetonic eyes just add to the icy character who'll sink to any level for his own gain.If you like Italian crime films, there's scores and scores of them that will easily satisfy. To me it seems to be the genre where the filmmakers always hit a home run. I've never watched one I didn't enjoy, and while Mad Dog hasn't got much in way of plot, it sure gets the adrenalin going. While not as nasty as Fulci's Contraband (although I'm sure there possibly might be an Italian crime movie that's more violent than that), I'd place Mad Dog on a par with Almost Human (which is quite similar). The only let down here is the presentation by Mill Creek, which is a severely cropped full screen version, although I must say I'm just glad to see the film at all.

This vicious crime drama certainly scores points for sleaze, but it doesn't hold up for more discriminating viewers. Helmut Berger plays a handsome and cruel killer who breaks out of prison and leads his gang on a rampage of rape, murder, and kidnapping. Along the way he ravages Marisa Mell, who pretends to enjoy his impositions whilst plotting her own secret revenge with police inspector Giulio Santini (the incredibly wooden Richard Harrison). Though the film was shot in widescreen, cinematographer Vittorio Berini displays no talent for the 2.35:1 lens, relying on static centred shots throughout. The screenplay is brutally bad, with characters lacking motivation and no back story to explain why Berger is such a complete bastard, and the dubbed English track is awful. (A close viewing reveals that Beast With A Gun was probably shot in phonetic English, as the actors' lips do seem to approximate the words they're speaking.) The only saving grace of the film is Umberto Smaila's persistent and minimal score. Only for hardcore fans of Eurotrash.

Remember the scene in Jackie Brown with Robert DeNiro and Bridget Fonda watching TV and then Samuel Jackson walks in and goes: "Is that Rutger Hauer?" and Fonda replies: "No, it's Helmut Berger."?Well, it's this movie they're watching.It's a typical low-key Italian gangster movie with a bunch of evil, skinny, mustached (except Helmut Berger) crooks driving around doing evil stuff. The violence scenes are very brutal but there are many moments where also unintentional humor is present. Once again, I have a Finnish super rare version of this movie with Finnish title (roughly translated) "Death Obeys No Law" on the front cover and in the back cover it says "Best With A Gun", (obviously a typing error). In the opening credits it says "Furious" (or "Ferocious"). A movie with so many names can't be that bad, can it?