God's Gun/Diamante Lobo (1976) - Van Cleef/Garrett pair for revenge in trashy Italo-Israeli delight

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Lee Van Cleef strangely seems to be wearing a shiny diamont earring on this beautifully painted poster for Gianfranco Parolini's God's Gun

A priest is murdered by a ruthless thug, but his twin brother will come to take his revenge!

God's Gun is written by John Fonseca (The Great Adventure/Il Richiamo del Lupo (1975)) and co-writer/director Gianfranco Parolini (The Old Testament/Il Vecchio Testamento (1962)).
It is an entertaining and well-paced b-picture western that's also semi-exploitation; it has several shoot-outs, hot ladies and elaborate rape scenes. It also has a cool Lee Van Cleef (The Perfect Killer/Quel Pomeriggio Maledetto (1977)) in the dual twin brother roles, Jack Palance (Young Guns (1988)) as the heavy and the unusually pretty (at the time) Leif Garrett (The Next Tenant (1998)) as the boy Johnny, who helps the justified vengeance along. Also with a 'ghost' duplicity plan, which is well thought up.
Dragging down God's Gun are involuntarily funny scenes, primitive effects and a monotone photographic expression that relies on zooms in just about every second scene!

Listen to the film's theme in a video here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[God's Gun was released in Italy some time in 1976 and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Israel. Sybil Danning, who plays Johnny's mother, was only 9 years older than him. Richard Boone left the film drunk and in poor health, before he had done his dub, (which was then completed by another actor), later calling the film "the worst picture ever made", as he derided its producer and director to an American reporter. The film was released in North America and at least 7 European markets, but its performance and budget is regrettably not known. It has apparently fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally here. Parolini returned with Giant of the 20th Century/Yeti - Il Gigante del 20° Secolo (1977). Van Cleef returned in Vengeance/Kid Vengeance (1977); Palance in Welcome to Blood City (1977). 1,182 IMDb users have given God's Gun an average 5.1/10 rating.]

What do you think of God's Gun?

Lemon Tree/עץ לימון [Etz Limon] (2008) - Israel-Palestine meet over an endangered lemon patch in Riklis' dull drama

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An idyllic poster for Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree

An aging widow decides to pick a fight, when her lemon farm gets targeted for demolition, because the Israeli minister of defense, who is her neighbor, fears that it may foster terrorists. - Can she overturn his decision?

The drama of neighbors that is Lemon Tree seems an obvious metaphor for the Israel-Palestine conflict in general, although it is also based on an actual story of defense minister (2002-06) Shaul Mofaz's charge against his neighbors' lemon trees, SPOILER a case which ended up in Israeli Supreme Court, where the minister won, and the trees of the Palestinian neighbors were cut down.
Lemon Tree doesn't lift the monumental task of making this strife of dinosaurs, (which the Israel-Palestine conflict more or less resembles in the eyes of the surrounding world after all these years), seem important and alive for all of us on the outside.
SPOILER Slowly, the female hero (played by Hiam Abbass (I Still Hide to Smoke/À Mon Âge Je Me Cache Encore pour Fumer (2016))) falls for the lawyer. Lemon Tree has a mitigating warmth to it and some fine, humanistic acting, - but it is fatally boring. SPOILER - In the end, half of the trees go down. Of course, it is entirely possible that you will care more than I did.
Lemon Tree is written by Suha Arraf (The Syrian Bride (2004)) and co-writer-director Eran Riklis (Zaytoun (2012)).

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
 

Watch a trailer for the film with German subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7.3 mil. $
= Unknown (but likely a minor flop)
[Lemon Tree premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Riklis developed the film based on watching a news story of the actual event. Shooting took place in Israel, including in and around the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, Palestine and in Washington, DC. Financing came together as an Israeli-German-French co-production of no less than 15 companies and support funds. If the cost was kept at a relatively low and likely 3 mil. $, the film would still rank as a minor flop theatrically. It opened #63 in 2 theaters to a 14k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #38 in 29 theaters and grossed 569k $ (7.8 % of the total gross). That was the 3rd biggest market for the film. The biggest and 2nd biggest were France with 2.8 mil. $ (38.4 %) and Italy with 1.4 mil. $ (19.2 %). It reportedly did poor business in Israel, where it was by many viewed as pro-Palestinian and polemical. In the only Muslim market registered on Box Office Mojo, Turkey, the film made only 3k $. It was the highest-grossing Israeli film of the year. It won a Berlin audience award, a David di Donatello nomination (Italy's Oscar), two European Film Award nominations, and Abbass won Best Actress from the Israeli Film Academy, who also bestowed the film with 6 other nominations. Lemon Tree is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lemon Tree?

The Debt (2010) - The Nazi war criminal thriller is back in a welcome return

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The slick but not very informative poster for John Madden's The Debt

QUICK REVIEW:

In 1965 the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad sent three agents to East-Berlin to assassinate an infamous Nazi war criminal, the Surgeon of Nuremberg, who was then a practicing gynecologist.

The Debt lifts the rich inheritance from Nazi war criminal thrillers like The Marathon Man (1976) and The Boys from Brazil (1978) without the elements of diamonds, clones or wild car chases from those films, but instead with a sober and intense story, SPOILER which ends as an uncompromising defense for truth in all contexts.
The film could have benefited from an opening text about East-Berlin and that Mossad had just localized the Surgeon there, and there are also some difficulties in seeing all the well-known actors as Jews, - but, more importantly, they all do well. Particularly Helen Mirren (The Last Station (2009)), who simply becomes her character here, but also Jessica Chastain (The Martian (2015)) and Jesper Christensen (Spectre (2015)), who is icy as the Nazi war criminal, mixing psychopathic diabolism with rationality and sympathetic qualities.
The Debt is a remake of the Israeli The Debt/Ha-Hov (2007), written by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass (2010)), Jane Goldman (Stardust (2007)) and Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)), and directed by great English filmmaker John Madden (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)). It is an attractive, good film.

Related review:

John Madden: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) - Elderly Brits me in India in Madden's delightful film

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 45.6 mil. $
= Flop
[The film premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival in France September 4 and runs 113 minutes. The Debt was finished and ready for release in July 2010, but due to the sale of distributor Miramax, the North American release was delayed until August 31 2011. The film opened #2 to 9.9 mil. $ in North America, where it grossed 31.1 mil. $ (68.2 % of the total gross.) The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 4.6 mil. $ (10.1 %) and the UK with 2.3 mil. $ (5 %). The Debt is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Debt?

A World Not Ours (2012) or, Palestinians Struggle

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A fine poster for Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of a Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon, Ein el-Helweh, told through the documentarian's personal perspective as an expatiate Palestinian, who has spend holidays his whole life in the camp visiting his trapped family there.

The documentarian Mahdi Fleifel's father points down to the small refugee camp Ein el-Helweh, where about 60-70,000 Palestinians have lived for decades and still live

Documentarian Mahdi Fleifel (Xenos (2014) short doc.) shows great handling of his sizable material, gathered through decades, of both personal family history, camp history and Israel-Palestine history in general. The film offers great insight into the Palestinian struggle and its development in the several decades since the country's overtake by the Jews following WWII.
Especially in the beginning, Not Ours is quite humorous, but soon its incredible sadness (which seems inherent in the telling of the Palestinian story) breaks through. The modern story of Palestine is very, very sad.

My favorite person in A World Not Ours, the documentarian Mahdi Fleifel's grandfather

A World Not Ours is a great documentary and a fine and touching human portrayal, especially of the desperate men that make up so much of the Palestinian people. Their profound disappointments and aggressions as refugee camp people for most if not all of their lives, is indeed a scary picture of despair.
A World Not Ours is a deeply personal cry for the Palestinian cause, which, unfortunately, doesn't point to any solutions for the future of the people.
That would be my only critique of it.

2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the film's fine trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of A World Not Ours?
Is there a solution to the Palestinians' struggle?
Where should this people live?