Duck, You Sucker!

If you like western films, boy have I got a movie for you! It's called "Duck, You Sucker!" or "A Fistful of Dynamite" or "Whatever Gibberish Is On That Poster Picture, I Don't Speak Europe Talk." Made in 1971, this was western-master Sergio Leone's follow up to "Once Upon A Time In The West," the second or first best western ever made, depending on my mood. "Duck, You Sucker!" follows a Mexican bandit, played by Rod Steiger, and an Irish revolutionary, played by James Coburn, as they accidentally get caught up in the Mexican Revolution. Leone is great at mixing the personal with the grand in scope, and the landscapes are stunning as in all of his films. I feel there are some serious pacing missteps, but since the special restored edition I watched was cobbled together from countless different edits there's no real way of telling what Leone wanted. Anyway, this film kicks seven ass-units of ass, but don't take my word for it - dadun dun!

RATING: 76%

For A Few Dollars More

This is the second of the so-called "Man With No Name" trilogy, a set of three westerns directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as ostensibly the same character, who knows. Anyway, this one's plot has Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef play bounty hunters after this really bad guy named Indio, although maybe Van Cleef has more at stake. This one is a lot better than A Fistful Of Dollars, but it still isn't as great as The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, obviously. And we all consider The Man With No Name to be one of the most memorable characters in cinema, but to be fair he is always the least interesting - here Van Cleef's character has a lot more history, and even the bloodthirsty villain Indio seems wracked with guilt, and smokes drugs after every kill he makes because he feels so bad. It's a great western from the absolute master of spaghetti westerns, so check it out or something.

RATING: 84%