Audience Member
What a title, and a good sequel.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The 4ths of 10 films from the Sartana The Complete Saga Collection. Sartana blows into town just after a local prospector, Joe Benson, has been murdered. Suddenly, there seems to be no shortage of buyers for the old man's land that most describe as nothing more than a pile of worthless sand. The two men who seem to want the land the most are the local crooked banker and the Chinese gambling parlor owner. But why? With Sartan's help, Benson's niece and heir plays the two potential buyers against each other looking to get the most for the land. Will she succeed? The only thing that's certain is that Sartana's going to do whatever he cam to make sure he comes out ahead.
Certainly not what I would call a top of the line Spaghetti Western, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend . . . Sartana Will Pay (let's shorten that to Have a Good Funeral for the rest of this comment) is still an enjoyable enough installment in the Sartana series. Gianni Garko is back as Sartana. He's excellent in the role and provides the character with just the right amount of mystery to throw doubt on his motivations. Even among the super human feats of other SW heroes, Sartana's abilities with a gun, a deck of cards, or being in the right place at the right time are unmatched. The supporting cast features a number of familiar faces - Helga Line and Franco Ressel being chief among them. But I was most impressed with Daniela Giordano and George Wang - the latter seemingly enjoying himself as much as anyone. Giuliano Carnimeo's direction is more workmanlike than artistic, though he does provide a visual flourish or two as Have a Good Funeral progresses. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. And even thought the man behind the killings is easy to spot for anyone who's seen enough of these movies, it's still fun to watch Sartana figure things out. Finally, Bruno Nicolai's score is definitely a high point of the film, even if it is eerily reminiscent of some of his other work. Overall, not a bad example of what I'm going to call a lesser SW. Trust me, you could do a whole lot worse. 3 Stars 1-15-13
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"I'll pray for yours..." - Sartana
The Sartana series is turning into a full blown franchise with this third entry (preceded by "If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death" and "I Am Sartana... Your Angel of Death") and a great one at that. The more of these Sartana films I watch the more he is becoming my favorite Spaghetti Western anti-hero. Sorry "The Man with No Name" and "Django".... Sartana is cutting you guys down to size.
Well Sartana witness as brutal massacre, kills the bastards that cold heartedly massacred a family and decides to investigate into it. Why? Not sure... maybe he's just a nice guy? Well he finds out some shady business deals or going down for the murdered man's land and it's up to him to convince the man's daughter not to fall for their dirty deals.
The problem with this plot is it's becoming evermore convoluted and needlessly so. The second entry suffered from this to an extent but here it is full blown. For a basic simple plot the writers take many weird twists and turns and confuses the audience in the process. No drinking during this film if you want to get what's going on... hell you might even want to take notes.
Gianni Garko again returns as Sartana and by this, his third time, he has the role down pat. He could play this part in his sleep he's so damn good in it. Calm and cool as always, confident, great with the ladies and lethal as ever. I also enjoy the fact that his character doesn't shy away from talking like most other spaghetti western anti-heroes. Fans may notice that his appearance has changed a bit as gone is the five o'clock shadow and in its place is a longer mustache. The mustache isn't as badass or as intimidating as the gritty whiskers but I digress as actions speak louder than words.
Director Giuliano Carnimeo again handles this sequel (the second he's directed in the series) well by giving it some well staged action sequence. My personal favorite is a coffin wagon chase in which Sartana. Along with the action is the return of the tongue-in-cheek humor, just enough to not be overbearing. Here he decides to do away with the "disappearing magic tricks" Sartana played in the second film and opts to have Sartana be deadly acurate by throwing playing cards. I'm not shitting you as he can knock guns out of hands and even throw cards into bibles at the exact Psalm he wants teh villain to read. Silly... you bet but badass none-the-less.
The films more convoluted plot and lack of interesting side characters (the returning grave digger from the original doesn't cut it) made me enjoy this sequel a hair less than the previous two but for a third entry this is a solid sequel and fans of the franchise should be very pleased with it.
Sartana will return in "Light the Fuse... Sartana is Coming"
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Gianni Garko is 100% badass in the third Sartana film. Sure, nothing new about that, but seems the makers came to their senses and started to discard over-written plots about double-crosses and what not and finally started to make Sartana's skills shine even more. Yes, there are double-crosses, a conspiracy between several individuals. It is the same plot of the previous two movies, but with a far better pacing. Things really get over the top now, in a good way that is. Sartana is throwing cards like knifes, and he's pretty much invencible, but the story knows how to show him as a smart fellow, and not just a supernatural killing machine. The bad guys this time are better written, so that helps a lot too. Nicolai's soundtrack is perfect, and Carnimeo's direction, while nothing stunning, gets the job done.
With more action and stylish decisions comes a couple of silly cliches, one in particular involving Sartana chasing a bunch of killers, who shoot everything they have against him almost at point blank, without ever hitting him. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often, again, i know it's part of the aura of Sartana being an invencible badass, but that scene was just sloppy. It shows for the simple reason thatthe rest of the film is fluid and pretty much flawless. It doesn't break it of course, overall, a lot of fun for any western or non-western movie fan.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
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