Goma-2

"Goma-2", or "Killing Machine" to make it sound a little more international, is an early 80s action/exploitation movie from Spain that is almost completely forgotten, but unjustly so! If you don't set your expectations too high, this actually is a very entertaining and exhilarating macho-flick with a solid B-movie cast, plenty of fires and explosions, nasty bare-knuckle fighting sequences, feisty music, and utmost evil bad guys you'll love to hate.

Former cult icon and hunk from Mexico Jorge Rivero stars as Txema; ex-member and plastic explosives' specialist of a feared terrorist organization, but nowadays peacefully settled down as an international truck driver and happily married with Eliza. When transporting fresh apples from Spain to Germany, he bumps into an angry French mob that wants to destroy his cargo. I can't really figure out who they are, though. I assume they are the local fruit and vegetables mafia, and want to protect the French economy? Either way, the bosses of this "mafia" are pure evil, especially the head patron played by the one and only Lee Van Cleef. The legendary actor played a lot of unsympathetic roles in his career, but Julot from "Goma-2" earns a spot in the most hateful top three!

Julot's minions set fire to the truck with Txema's pregnant wife still inside, and he watches her burning to death. This is - and I'm sorry to say so - a good thing for the movie, though, as the woman who plays Eliza is a terrible actress. When Julot also humiliates Txema in court and treats him and his brother-in-law to another serious beating, it's time for our angry trucker to polish up his old terrorist skills!

"Goma-2" may not be refined or artful Spanish cinema, but it surely entertains massively. There's never one dull moment, and there's even suspense and a little bit of genuine drama. My sole regret is that Txema wasn't an expert in knives or torturing techniques during his time at the terrorist organization. Explosions are cool, but the bad guys' deaths nearly aren't painful enough compared to the agony they caused.

Watching this film Killing Machine Americans Margaux Hemingway, Richard Jaeckel and Willie Aames looked so jarringly out of place among the Spaniards and other European types in this Spanish produced film, you have to figure that they did this one for the paycheck and the European trip. Hope the checks cleared for them.

Jorge Rivero of the Mexican cinema and best know to American audiences as Pierre Cardona from the John Wayne western Rio Lobo is our protagonist. A former terrorist he's settled down to the simple life of a truckdriver in Spain. He has a California kid brother-in-law in Willie Aames and a pregnant wife in Ana Obregon. Rivero gets involved in a dispute between Spanish and French truck farmers and his wife is killed. After that he's a Killing Machine and he sure has the expertise.

Lee Van Cleef is the organized crime figure head of the union. He never looks out of place because he's the same smirking, sardonic Van Cleef we know from a gazillion American and spaghetti westerns. He knows it's a turkey, but gobble he doesn't.

I doubt the film will get the restoration it needs. The sound is terrible, the acting is phoned in performances, and the direction most pedantic. Sounds like these truck farmers were peddling some spoiled fruit.

What can I say? First of all no stars for this turkey. I saw Killing Machine on one of those old '80s videocassette deals hosted by Sybil Danning. She is actually the best thing about the program, because the movie stinks big time! It is billed on the video box to star Lee Van Cleef, Richard Jaeckel, Willie Aames, and Margaux Hemingway. They are more like guest stars, because the real star is some Spanish bum that I've never seen before and never want to see again. Its supposed to be about a truck driver that is attacked by French unionists: they kill his wife, and he goes after them. It is never fully explained why the unionists are angry at the truck drivers other than the fact that they carry fruit that is evil (I guess...like I said...It is never explained). Lee Van Cleef plays a lawyer (!) that covers things up for the union. There's an interesting scene that is supposed to be in a courtroom, but it looks like the scene was shot in a cheap conference room in some warehouse. Cleef was very old here, so the idea of him being some kind of tough guy is demolished by his aged appearance. Hemingway looks astonishingly bad, and her acting reflects her awful appearance. Richard Jaeckel (mispelled?) makes the worst performance by William Shatner look good, and Willie Aames is annoying as always. Aames had passed over his teenage good looks, so there isn't even anything good to look at. I heard later that he bottomed out on drugs and converted to Christianity (no small favor for movies...stay out, Willie!) PLEASE SKIP THIS TRASH! UPDATE 08/04/05: I originally voted this the worst film I saw in 2005, but then I saw High Tension and changed my mind.

This minor Euro-actioner was released in the greedy 80's on Sybil Dannings' Adventure Video label in those great big old cereal box video cases. Although this was made quickly and cheaply, and before it becomes a standard revenge action melodrama, this is a fairly absorbing drama as Jorge Rivero seeks revenge against Lee Van Cleef after his cohorts cause a disruption during some labor wars which results in the death of his wife (the lovely Ana Orbregon). These international films are always amusing alone just for the eclectic cast members. Somehow Willie Aames (who collected more than a few cheques in Grade Z Euro-Trash after "Eight is Enough" was cancelled) is Ana's BROTHER. Plus, Rivero gets some assistance from doomed starlet Margaux Hemingway against the diabolical Julot. There is nothing special in the acting or (certainly) directing department (check out the sloppily-edited car explosion sequence), but it does get a few shots in the arm with some scenes of our main man, Lee Van Cleef. Before he goes into court over some misdealings perpetrated by his henchman (Richard Jaeckel!), in his typically dry-voiced demanour and eagle-eyed glance, he says, "You guys are getting too public. I don't like it." You know he means business.

Steel-fisted, preternaturally handsome action hero, Jorge 'Fist Fighter' Rivero thrills as, Txema Basterrenech, a former explosive expert for a shady hardline terrorist outfit who grimly discovers that his new straight life as long distance lorry driver, and loving husband to the beautiful, pregnant, Elisa (Ana Obregon) is to be fraught with no less danger than the shadowy past he had hoped to distance himself from! The intractable, Txema won't kowtow to the relentless brutality of enjoyably despicable B-movie mob boss, Major Julot (Lee Van Cleef), this defiance fatefully becomes the shatteringly violent catalyst which propels, Txema upon an explosive campaign of righteously destructive retribution, methodically hunting down the three vermin responsible for his wife's death with the same ruthless efficiency as his arch nemesis, Major Julot!

Making the most of this incendiary cocktail of volatile exploitation material director, J. Anthony Loma wastes very little time with narrative niceties, the distressing scene of a physically overwhelmed, Txema being savagely beaten and then forced to watch on helplessly as, Julot's hired goons torment his young wife makes for a memorably unpleasant interlude, thereby making it absolutely impossible not to sympathize with Txema's roiling hatred for cruel Machiavellian gangster, Julot and the unconscionable brutality of his pitiless henchmen.

'Killing Machine' delivers gritty, skull-shattering B-Movie catharsis of the highest order, and watching the earnestly enraged, Txema sending his ignominious abusers into the flesh-searing inferno they so richly deserve makes for gloriously edifying, blood-lusting entertainment, and not only is Txema's explosive revenge excitingly mounted, 'Killing Machine' has a notable cast of illuminated Euro-cult Thespians, Richard 'Grizzly' Jaeckel, Hugo 'City of the Living Dead' Stiglitz, Aldo 'A Fistful of Spaghetti westerns' Sambrell, Frank 'Pieces/Slugs' Brana, and the truly reprehensible mafia sleaze, Julot being essayed with immaculately glacial élan by screen con Lee Van Cleef. But one of Killing Machine's greatest strengths lies in the sublimely moody synth score by Euro-crime legends, Guido & Maurizio De Angelis whose magnificent theme is, perhaps, one of their very finest works! 'Killing Machine' is a bona fide, Grade 'A' B-Move Cult waiting to be discovered!