Bit of a Desert Yawn
Following a run in with some Germans; Cprl. MacGregor (Kirk Morris), Lt. Crossland (Ivan Rassimov) and mechanic Sgt. Kerr (Giuseppe Castellano) escape in to the desert with the goal of reaching the safety of allied lines. Along the way their small group swells as they meet another soldier stuck behind enemy lines along with three women who have become trapped due to a sandstorm. But with their path towards allied lines full of German troops and supplies running low it is a dangerous journey especially when they are forced to take shelter in an abandoned desert fort.
Unlike Italian westerns I have never been the biggest fan of Italian war movies, I've always found them to be imitations of bigger movies. And that is how I feel about "Overrun!" which is also known as "I sette di Marsa Matruh" as whilst not a direct copy of a bigger Hollywood movie it has a familiar storyline with a group of people trying to make it to safety across the enemy filled desert. Don't get me wrong as "Overrun!" isn't terrible it just feels like a low budget version of what Hollywood was doing 10 years earlier.
Part of the trouble with "Overrun!" is that it all seems so anonymous as we follow a group of characters around who we are never really introduced to. We are not even given much character development once the movie gets going, just various escapades including discovering 3 women stuck in a sanded in jeep in the middle of nowhere. That scene is as ridiculous as it sounds and is only one of many ridiculous scenes which follow which are made worse by some incredibly stiff acting.
The only thing which "Overrun!" has going for it is that some of the cinematography is not half bad. The long shots which capture the sheer size of the desert work well to establish the battle of this small group in the middle of nowhere but the close up camera work is dull.
What this all boils down to is that "Overrun!" is firstly a poor war movie due to the ridiculous nature of finding three women in a jeep but it is also not a good movie generally with various issues such as a lack of character depth. Yet in a strange way once you start watching you don't want to stop as there is something about it which draws you in.
