Italian genre directors found their budgets ever falling throughout the 1980s as the country's film-making industry went into a decline. Sadly, this meant that for fans of the prolific Italian exploitation films churned out since the late '50s, the quality of the films was always declining and productions started getting few and far between. Indeed in the late '80s and early '90s, barely any movies got released outside of their native country and those that did – for example, KARATE WARRIOR – were hardly worth it in the first place. DAYS OF HELL is a dirt cheap war movie (a genre that briefly flourished in Italy in the wake of America's Rambo and his friends) that marks a sorry way to end thirty years of solid entertainment and spectacle. Cult director Tonino Ricci – the subject of much criticism throughout the years, but who could usually be relied upon to deliver entertaining B-movie produce – re-teamed some of his cheapest and hardest-working "stars" from the likes of RUSH: THE ASSASSIN and its sequel RAGE and the end result is a curiously uninvolving slice of vintage escapism.
The action rages constantly as DAYS OF HELL begins to tell its story. A hospital tent in a field is attacked by a shot of a helicopter (this shot is repeated ad infinitum throughout the movie due to budget constraints). Apparently a scientist and his daughter are kidnapped, although the action is so confusingly portrayed that you're never quite sure of what is going on. The scene shifts to a really crappy set, supposedly in Miami, where the heads of state (a bunch of old, tired-looking guys) recruit a crack team to go into Afghanistan and rescue the two kidnapped hostages. That's the whole plot set-up. The rest of the film is just one great big long action scene.
The action comes thick and fast and never lets up. Dozens of enemy jeeps and trucks are blown up and attacked by our heroes. Attacks by angry rebels lead to lots of cliff-top shoot-outs and gun battles through the terrain. The attack on the enemy base is violent and full of death and there are bandana-wearing traitors, a kid who throws grenades at people, and some really cheap special effects work. Sadly none of this is as exciting as it sounds. For a start the budget constraints mean that there isn't even any room for squib hits. Guys just fall over bloodlessly when shot. Mini trampolines are used at every opportunity to show enemy soldiers flying through the air. Case in point: two radio operators in a room. A grenade is thrown in, blowing one out of one window. Another grenade is thrown in, blowing the other out of the opposite window. There are lots of stunt men used in this film but Ricci is unable to make the action very moving or even exciting, despite the effort put into it. Sure, a good storyline always helps, but I don't mind watching mindless action if it is done well. Sadly Ricci has neither a good story or any good action, the result is a not very good movie.
Beefcake hero Conrad Nichols (THOR THE CONQUEROR) takes the lead as the muscular commando fighter. Sadly his acting ranges between wooden (any dialogue scene) and overacting (his open-mouthed battle sequences) with no balance in between. He's more hopeless here than in any other film I've watched him in. Thankfully there are a couple of good character actors in support who nearly make the film worthwhile (I say nearly as, unfortunately, their characters are bland they are unable to make much of them). Howard Ross (THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE) is a battle-hardened mercenary with dyed black hair and Werner Pochath (BLOODLUST) plays his usual stereotyped character, a nervous and edgy team member who loses it more often than not.
Watch out for the scenes where characters discuss chemical weapons coming out of Iraq to attack the West. A strangely prophetic line of dialogue in a movie which is in all other respects a waste of time, effort and (little) money. When the setting amounts to a piece of wasteland and a field somewhere in Italy you know you're in for a bad time. When that same field is used as a dozen different locations you just know that the film is in trouble. Sadly, DAYS OF HELL cannot escape such constraints, making it a film that only really dedicated genre fans might get a kick out of.
