Wordiezett So much average

Steineded How sad is this?

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

adrianswingler I saw this one as a pretty good example of a "B" version of the early '70s Italian crime films. On those terms, it's pretty good. I'm not really sure you can take it seriously enough to rate against the "A" grade, but I think it pretty much announces that. One of the taglines from a poster at the time was "No swords, no guns, no knives, no weapons. Just a burning pool of acid!". No weapons? No knives? Tons of those. And...just a minor point...soap is made from an alkaline solution, things like sodium hydroxide. That's the opposite of acid. So the only thing in the tagline accurate is "no swords". Like I'd expect that of a '70s Italian crime film.So, you can't get too deep with this one. As an over the top take on the sub genre I think it works. As much "early '70s" as it is "Italian crime film", it doesn't spare any mod visuals. Worth a go, I say.

Tender-Flesh OK, here's the plan. I've been working my way through all the films IMDb has listed with the keyword Slasher. Can you tell I'm a fan? So, when I ran across this film, and look at the tagline and my screen-name...obviously I would be interested, and wow, what a piece of trash this turned out to be.I'll be generous and tell you the score was decent, occasionally the cinematography was creative, and it's violent. But, come on. Look at the poster/cover art listed on this site. And even the name alternative. It's got horror film written all over that. But this isn't a horror film in the least. The Italian actors in a B film do as best as you might expect, which I am fine with. But, seriously, I've seen Ed Wood and Andy Milligan films with better acting than what Chris Mitchum "executes" in this picture. I can't believe this guy was in 3, count them, 3 John Wayne movies before this one. He is awful. He may have improved, but his performance here totally killed what could have been a decent action/mobster/revenge flick. He is not the least bit intimidating anywhere in the painful 90 minutes. It's almost like he doesn't even want to be there and it's written all over his face the entire time as well as his half-hearted delivery. Utter vomit.The only, and I mean only, thing this movie really has going for it is a few nude scenes, lots of gunshot wounds, a decent fog-wrapped striptease on a car hood, and an up close and personal castration scene, which subsequently has said disembodied genitals shoved into the poor guy's mouth. But, don't be put off by how awesome that sounds. It's not even worth it for the other 90 minutes of yawns.

zardoz-13 Originally, when "Ricco The Mean Machine" came out on VHS in America, it was an edited version, but the 2006 DVD release put all the footage back into it that makes it a violent, brutal movie. This contemporary Italian produced revenge thriller chronicles the last days of Ricco Aversi (Christopher Mitchum-the son of the legendary Robert Mitchum) after he gets out of prison where he served two years. He has been let out of jail a year ahead of time for good behavior. Ricco is coming home to see his married sister and invalid mother. Mom tries to thrust an automatic pistol into his palm because Mafiaso Don Vito (Arthur Kennedy) had his father, Gaspara Aversi (Luis Induni), murdered. Duty-bound Ricco assures his mom that he will handle things in his own way. Ricco infiltrates the gang with the help of an old friend (Eduardo Fajardo of "The Mercenary") who turns out to be pretty treacherous and his new girlfriend Scilla (Barbara Bouchet) who likes to hustle guys with her cleavage when she is trying to exchange funny money for genuine green.Basically, this is a violent shoot'em up crime movie with some tough, gritty action. The uncut version shows a mafia soldier getting dumped naked into a tub of acid after the villains have cut off his genitals--yes, you see a super hairy cock & balls slashed off and then shoved in his mouth before they tumble him into the acid bath. Rosa (Malisa Longo) joins him a moment later; Rosa was the girlfriend of Don Vito and she was cheating on him with one of his crime lieutenant because she wanted to have sex with young meat.This nimble European actioneer opens with the ambush of Gaspara Aversi. He is ambushed trying to get the night watchman to open a gate so that he can park his car. Three men open fire on him and wound him repeatedly but the mafia chieftain guns them down. Gaspara is not as lucky when the fourth gunman delivers a coup de grace to the him and blasts away his noggin. Amoral crime drama from start to finish with its own message that revenge begets killing and more killing until there is nobody left to kill, including the protagonist who dies in a duel with Don Vito. One interesting scene occurs about half-way through the movie when Ricco and Scilla rob two guys carrying protection collection money gathered by the Vito mob. Scilla walks in front of their car on a foggy bridge and strip-teases. When they get out of the car to approach her, Ricco surprises them from behind and sends them plunging into the river. The consequences for their ill-advised behavior is not good. An unhappy Don Vito has both of them thrown unceremoniously into an acid bath. The ironic thing about the Don Vito character is that he is a mobster who makes soap! If you crave exploitation European movie-making at its best, do not miss "Ricco The Mean Machine!" This movie was made when it was fashionable to zoom and pan with film cameras. Christopher Mitchum studied karate, too. The production lensed the action on location around Rome, Italy.

jlabine Whoo-hoo, what a film! This film is lots of fun. Of course not in the masterpiece kind of way. Tulio Demicheli's "The Mean Machine" is a pretty bad flick indeedy. But it's such a perfect example of Euro-Trash, that I felt someone had to mention it. First off, it has Christopher Mitchum (where else can an a major actor's son find work? In Italy of course!) giving such a wooden performance, that my roomate mearly rolled his eyes, snickered, and walked out of the room shaking his head (c'mon Tony, you know you did). Christopher with his Dad's droopy eyes just stares off with that same blank expression through out the entire film. Of course he must have known it was a pretty bad script, so I won't fault him too much (I haven't seen his other artistic efforts). But it really cracked me up that on the video box there was this drawing of him looking handsome and muscular, which he definately is not. He was pretty wimpy looking, and evertime he tried to give a macho pose, or flex his authority, I nearly laughed myself silly. Though I excuse all of this, because the real reason I rented this flick was because of the wonderful and beautiful Barbara Bouchet! And this film delivers! She does this great little strip dance in front of these gangsters in a car, right before Chris (Rico the "Mean Machine") throws them into a lake! It's so funny, that Italy will take any oppertunity they can to show off Barbara's attributes. Of course it gratuitous, but it's just too much fun! And of course even after the big ambush, Chris looks to Barbara and she's still has no clothes on. She's having a good time tackling gangsters in the nude! Well, at least Barbara looks to be having fun. Another Euro-babe favourite Malisa Longo (as Chris' ex-girlfriend)also likes to spend her time flirting with Bodygaurds and sitting around in the buff. But unfortunately she meets with a very grizzly end, and becomes the film's sacrificial lamb (what else was gonna come of her character? Chris Mitchum was now with Barbara Bouchet.) in a tub of Acid! This film contains all the unnecessary violence (gory stuff as well), nudity (lots of it), macho posturing (Chris' Ricco is not opposed to giving a lady a smack if she's not behaving), and crummy acting that 70's Italian cinema is so famous for. Would I recommend it? Hardly! Did I laugh my fool head off? Yep! After this review, I'll let the reader make their own call. Barbara Bouchet is amazing!