Scott LeBrun The third entry in the "Sabata" series brings back star Lee Van Cleef, after the movie "Adios, Sabata" (which was redubbed and re-christened with the "Sabata" brand name) with Yul Brynner. This time, Sabata is working in a sideshow in the small town of Hobsonville. Hobsonville is dominated by a greedy robber baron named Joe McIntock (Giampiero Albertini). McIntock taxes his citizens for just about everything, and supposedly it goes towards making town improvements. Sabata does battle with the villainous McIntock while cultivating a tenuous "partnership" with the shifty Lt. Clyde (Reiner Schone)."The Return of Sabata" has a plot so convoluted and twist-laden that it only starts to become more clear towards the end. The viewer really has to pay attention in order to avoid becoming confused; even then, this is the kind of story that probably does command more than one viewing for the sake of understanding it. Not that it matters all that much; oftentimes the story takes a backseat to comedy. The film is at its brightest when coming up with a variety of gags, surprises, and cool gadgets. Sabata is an absolutely unflappable hero in the face of danger, and frequently catches his opponents off guard.This film looks as good as anything else in this genre: it's well designed, well shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and it features a blatantly comical (and insidiously catchy) music score composed by Marcello Giombini. There are some lovely ladies to add some sex appeal, and there are occasional doses of gore as the body count rises. The acrobat characters return to dazzle us with their amazing feats.It sure is nice to see Van Cleef in a more lighthearted venture than usual, and he does appear to be having fun. The supporting cast - Schone, Albertini, Ignazio Spalla, Annabella Incontrera, Jacqueline Alexandre, Steffen Zacharias - is equally engaging. Schone is amusing as an *extremely* weaselly lowlife.Good entertainment for Spaghetti Western fans.Seven out of 10.

cmdrdan2001 I saw this movie on cable television. It played right after The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Talk about day and then night.When I saw that it starred Lee Van Cleef, and heard the catchy theme song, I thought, hey, maybe this will be good.But alas, Lee Van Cleef went from the Bad to the Bad Movie. As far as I am concerned, there are only three Spaghetti Westerns, and Return of Sabata is a perfect example why. These imitations don't measure up.Van Cleef makes a valiant effort as the cool cat Sabata who always finds a way to win. But as he is not countered by any competent antagonist, his efforts are wasted. The movies' arch-villain McKintock is evil enough, but hapless (why doesn't he just have a bunch of guys with shotguns assassinate Sabata?) and surrounded by clownish lackeys with no sand.These themes are established early: Sabata always knows what's going on, and Sabata always wins. It seems half the film consists of McKintock's men challenging Sabata to one gambling contest after another, then trying to trick or cheat him, only to find that Sabata cheats better. Many of these scenes end with Sabata pulling a gun at some clever time, including a small-caliber barrel hidden up his sleeve. Somehow no one ever decides to draw before he does, and time and again, a roomful of armed hostiles is mysteriously cowed. Van Cleef wears a Cool Hand Luke air throughout, but the effect is to turn him into a kind of god-figure. He can get the drop on dozens of men at once? Who can challenge him, then, in this town full of cowards? Yawn. The non-gambling parts of this film seem to be inspired by the director belatedly realizing that it needs to involve more than just harping on Sabata's gambling prowess. Even the positive comments on this page admit that the plot is unfathomable in a single viewing. It's worse; it's as though they shot a bunch of random western-themed scenes, then tried to edit them into a movie. The characters are shallow Western clichés with no substance, and their motives are mostly "I'm-with-Sabata" or "I'm-with-McKintock." And what is going on, and why, is rarely explained. At one point, Clyde suddenly jump into a horse-drawn cart and make off with the loot. But he doesn't get far before his cart loses a wheel and Sabata is there to coolly chide him for his impish treachery. What, Clyde was planning to steal the loot? Why did the wheel fall off? How did Sabata know he was going to do it?The entire film is one take after another of Someone Tries to do Something Against Sabata, leading up to Sabata Wins, Hands Down. Even when the movie bothers to explain just HOW Sabata wins, it wears too thin to hold the attention. Kind of like Superman in the Wild West, with no super-villains or Kryptonite. If you've seen one scene, you've seen the whole film. See it if you like bad movies that critics whitewash as "rollicking." But see it for free, it's not worth paying for.

ariakos Return of Sabata casts Lee Van Cleef back as the cunning and ruthless sharpshooter, Sabata. Similarities between the first Sabata movie where Van Cleef also played the same role are more than abundant: acrobats, comical sidekicks, greedy villains, double-crossing allies, Sabata shooting off with his cool 4-barreled Derringer and so forth. Lee Van Cleef rocks. He's as cool as ever, and all the other actors do at least fairly decent jobs supporting him.Everything seems to be as well as in the first movie. Except that this time the plot is more complicated and filled with twists and turns (and plot holes). Unfortunately this is not entirely good thing: in time you lose track of the plot twists and begin to wonder the motives and the logic behind some of the characters behavior. Why did he do that? Wouldn't it been more logical to behave or act some other way? Much like Ocean's 12 or any other snotty "cleverer-than-thou" sequel, Return of Sabata drowns you with twists and turns just for the sake of confusing. This leads to the point that you actually have to watch Return of Sabata at least couple of times before the main plot fully unravels. Of course you do get the big picture in the end of the movie after the first watch, but in order to get all the nuances and small details in place you might want to give it another go. Not that the main plot would magically turn out to be any better: it just rewards you a little bit more since the second time you have a small grasp *why* somebody did something that seemed illogical or strange before. This time you know what's in that characters mind and you also know something about his motives. Then again, I strongly believe that these kind of character traits should have been portrayed clearer in the script (or acting) so you would have realized them during the first view time already.In short? Return of Sabata offers great characters, but lousy and confusing plot. Still, it's worth a watch. Or two.

funkyfry Sabata returns (again) to kick a** and earn cash. Van Cleef is good and there is a lot of visual interest in this action story. I particularly liked the shots of Sabata and friends cresting various sand dunes. The acrobats and other characters from the other Sabata films are also back, once again with new names (very much like Eastwood's "no name" character who, contrary to myth, in fact has 3 names) presumably so they can be killed off again. I had a lot of fun watching it, but 3 days later I can't really remember what it was about. Well, heck, it's still a good movie!