Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Das Amulett des Todes" is a West German film from 1975, so this one is already over 40 years old. It was made by Ralf Gregan and Günter Vaessen and it is one of Dutch actor Rutger Hauer's rare journeys into the world of German cinema. The two people I mentioned already are German and same can be said about pretty much the entire cast, such as female lead actress Vera Tschechowa and the eternal Sedlmayr. The film is fairly short, only runs for 80 minutes and the story is as follows. A man get violated by a bunch of crooks and a woman is watching. The men see her and take her hostage, but she manages to flee with the injured and from that moment on, a love relationship grows and they are always trying to get away from the bad guys and when they can't then Hauer's character fights them (sometimes they appear completely out of nowhere) with all he has, while Tschechowa's is usually tied up somewhere crying and being very scared. In theory, I like films with simple plot lines, so I believe this could have turned out a decent movie. But it did not. The plot was pretty ridiculous at times and Tschechowa is the perfect example here of how stereotypically bad female character were written around that time. Not even Hauer can save this film. It's bad through and through and there are very few solid moments only. 4/10 was still really generous here. I do not recommend the watch and I was pretty glad this was over so quickly. At best, a guilty pleasure, but not even as something like that it delivers.
Rautus
I found this hard to find film on VHS at my local store and I thought okay, it has Rutger Hauer in it and I liked him in The Hitcher, Blind Fury etc so I decided to buy it and I didn't find it too bad. This movie is very low budget with the camera shots, the music and the dubbing, the scenery where it was filmed in looked nice. Cold Blood does start off a bit slow and the action starts later on in the movie, the plot is about a pilot named Cris (Rutger Hauer) who becomes part of the mob but when he betrays them they catch up with him and shoot him but a young women witnesses it so they come into the house with him and after bandaging up his wound they take her with them but Cris stabs the boss and the young women drives the car off then they take out the body and she takes him to a doctor who removes the bullet, then they're both going through the countryside trying to avoid the two men after him and the money he hid somewhere.Cold Blood isn't the greatest movie but it is an alright flick.
56DeSoto
Finally, after much hard work and searching, I found a Rutger Hauer movie that is worse than Beyond Justice (which co-starred Omar Sharif and Elliot Gould!). Had to dig deep, but this confused film takes the cake. It's dated, not just by the fluffy hairstyles and constant cigarette puffing, but also by the unfortunate synthesizer soundtrack. The plot, what there is of it, is hard to follow and none of the characters are particularly likable. The dubbing is distracting. The film comes across as muddy on many levels, though some of that may be due to the iffy DVD transfer. So why 3 stars? Because it has Rutger Hauer and I'll watch anything he's in. But that doesn't mean I'll watch it twice...
Movie Nuttball
Cold Blood is a fair film that has a great cast including Rutger Hauer, Vera Tschechowa, Horst Frank Walter Richter, Günther Stoll, Walter Sedlmayr, Andreas Mannkopff, Anna-Maria Asmus, and Erich Kleiber. The acting by all of these actors is OK. The movie didn't get a high rating from Me here because of the lack greatness and the for the several nudity scenes from the woman. It seems like she will freely show her body on film even in the sex scene. This all brought it downhill for Me. I mean it did have a good villain and some good action but I would not recommend this film even to the hardcore fan of Haurer to watch this movie. One movie I do strongly recommend is Blind Fury! Now that was a great Rugter Hauer movie. Nevermind this film and buy Blind Fury instead!
AD
