Spaghetti Again
Having spent five years in jail Bill Kiowa (Brett Halsey) is glad to be out as he has some business to attend to. Having hired a group of mercenaries with the money his father left him Bill sets out to get revenge against James Elfego (Tatsuya Nakadai) the leader of the Comancheros who not only killed his Indian wife but was the man who set him up.
"Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!", "Today It's Me, Tomorrow It's You", "Oggi a me... domani a te!" what ever you want to call this spaghetti western which has many different names it doesn't change the fact that it is a familar movie. It appears many have been drawn to this western due to Dario Argento being one of the writers and fans of Argento's seem impressed by this revenge western but that is all it is, another revenge western. That doesn't mean I think "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" is a bad movie just one which is all too familiar for fans of the western genre.
I suppose as a western fan it is easy to become a little jaded by a movie's familiarity as so many themes were revisited over and over again with the prisoner out for revenge being just one of them. It means that once Kiowa is released from jail and his intentions are made clear we know that he is going to end up killing the Comancheros before having the final fight with Elfego. And when Kiowa decides he needs to hire some help we know that this is purely a time filler as he goes round one by one persuading these cautious idividuals to join him.
The thing is that whilst the familiar storyline did little for me there were some things about "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" which did. "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" is a very uneven movie and there are moments with some decent cinematography accompanied by a decent score but these often can be followed by a less impressive scene with a score which doesn't see to fit. It is the same with the acting because there are times when Brett Halsey as Kiowa brings to life the mean, moodiness of his character but then the next ends up struggling to be anything more than a model moved about to look good. But there is also Tatsuya Nakadai who has a lot of fun as bad guy Elfego who helps lift thie familiarity of the movie to still be entertaining.
What this all boils down to is that "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" is nothing more than a revenge spaghetti western with all the elements and some of the cast typical to the genre. But whilst uneven it is an entertaining western for those not bothered by its lack of originality.
