KILL! is a plodding European thriller that feels like a more nihilistic version of a Bond story. The film opens with a series of brutal slayings before Interpol begin to investigate and discover that a vigilante is going around taking down career criminals, from drug dealers to pornographers. Interpol's finest agents are tasked with tracking down the killer responsible and stopping him before he kills again. The production values are low on this film and the direction is poor, with sloppy editing throughout. It's a notably violent production that manages to have somebody gunned down every five minutes or so, but the quality is a disappointment. As with many European films of the era, it manages to bag some surprisingly big names in the cast. James Mason and Curt Jurgens are the superiors, Stephen Boyd a scruffy agent, and the glamorous Jean Seberg the blonde heroine of the hour.

This movie is not for everyone, but I think it is a 70's classic. Directed by Romain Gary, and starring his wife Jean Seberg (just after her nervous breakdown), this is a strange, dreamlike, bizarre film. There are some great moments in this film- sort of a cross between a spaghetti western, ClockWork Orange and Performance. Jean Seberg herself is perfectly cast in this as the bored housewife Emily looking for a thrill--and off to Pakistan (well, OK it was filmed in Spain) she goes! The renegade she meets, Brad Killian (name obviously in reference to his dedicated profession of killing every drug runner he can find), is played by the wonderful Stephen Boyd. In his leather-clad outfit and wild hair, he makes for a great anti-hero as he seduces Emily, and turns the cards on her husband, played by the excellent James Mason. The music is amazing, and there are a host of classic Italian character actors in this flick as the bad guys. Oh, and Curd Jergens shows up too! It's a great 70's trip - I highly recommend this if you can track it down on IOFFER.

"Kill!" (or "Kill!" Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!"....well, you get the idea) is ostensibly an anti-drug cinematic manifesto, yet it contains some sequences so ludicrous that you have to wonder if the filmmakers themselves were under the influence of drugs when they were filming them (especially the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed ending). Badly scripted (apparently getting interrogated, intimidated and tied up by a man makes him irresistible to a woman, according to Romain Gary) and occasionally poorly dubbed in English for the supporting characters, this film is far below the talents of its leading quartet of actors, and as anti-drug propaganda pieces go, much worse than the infamous "The Poppy Is Also A Flower". Jean Seberg followers might be interested to know that she has a couple of topless scenes - but I'm fairly certain the body in those scenes belongs to a double. *1/2 out of 4.

An absolutely dire thriller about an ex-Interpol agent turned assassin who tries to wipe out porn merchants and drug dealers in Pakistan. This is confusing, nasty and atrociously directed, with an extremely high death rate but little else. Stephen Boyd must have wondered what he had done wrong to go from the giddy heights of Ben Hur to this shambolic mess. As for James Mason, it's almost enough to make a grown man cry to see such a fine actor in such garbage.