Review for “Get Mean”
Oddness ensues in this spaghetti western as everybodies favorite under dog of the genre “The Stranger”, is hired by a witch to escort a princess to Spain. Once in Spain The Stranger must ward off evil Barbarians, a crazed Hunchback, a gay man(played by Anthony’s brother), Lesbian warriors, a raging bull, magic and even spirits who want to turn him into a wolf ( ? ) in order to escort the Princess back to her castle and collect his reward of 50,000 dollars. Unfortunatly for our poor anti-hero the princess is kidnapped by the leader of the barbarians, Diego(played by Raf Baldessare), and so The Stranger must rescue her. By the first hour of the film Anthony’s character has been buRnt, hung up by his feet, beaten down and roasted like a pig until finally he takes up his trusty four barreled shotgun, some dynamite and a jar full of scorpions and decides to GET MEAN!
This is the fourth and final flick in “The Stranger” series and it is easily the weakest, however it still manages to be highly entertaining(certainly more entertaining than the plodding A Stranger in Town). In fact the only dull moment I can think of is when Anthony must go through some sort of quest to uncover a magical artifact hidden in a cave (once he aquires it he never even uses it). The scene is tedious and unfunny.
As far as acting goes Anthony is in his usual bad acting form (which mysteriously took a hike during the filming of “Blindman”) but that is part of Anthony’s charm and one wonders if he is really that bad or he just acts bad to get a laugh. Either way his hammy performance works!
There is also an inspired role by Loyd Battista as a crazy hunchback who fancies himself a great shakespearean actor!
Some money was thrown into this one. Big sets, large scale battles and explosive pyrotechnics litter the film. Baldi’s direction keeps the film moving at a brisk pace and doesn’t let little things like logic and plot hamper the procceedings.
The intention was that if “Get Mean” was a hit, sequels with the Stranger as a time traveler would follow. Unfortunatly, but not surprisingly, the film failed to find an audience.