Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Taha Avalos
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Phillida
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Haven Kaycee
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
bebop63-1
Another matzoh ball-topped spag western featuring Lee Van Cleef and a very young Leif Garrett (before he became a teenage heart throb), who also "teamed" up in God's Gun which I have given a low rating, but this one rates even lower for worse acting, action and production. Tom Thurston (Leif Garrett) witnesses the brutal murder of his parents and the abduction of his elder sister by a mostly Mexican band of outlaws led by white man McClain (Van Cleef) who is the most un-western looking villain in a Western movie; with his greasy long hair, ornate headband and single earring, he looks like he wandered out of Woodstock Festival into a movie set by mistake and decided to stay there. On the spur of the moment, Tom is hellbent on revenge, pursuing the gang surreptitiously and surprisingly manages to whittle down their numbers in various ways, without being caught. And that's just the beginning of a long list of errors I can spot, in continuity and logic and others. And that's not even mentioning the passel of no-account lowlifes that try to rob the gold prospector Isaac (Jim Brown) of his hard-gained treasure, who are in my opinion the most moronic and incompetent bad guys I've ever come across in film. The climax and ending are simply unbelievable they're almost surreal. Watch the film and you'll know what I'm talking about.
froberts73
I have to grit my teeth (grit-grit) when I read the putdown of this movie. Sure, it is another vengeance adventure and, sure, there are goings-on that have gone on before, but the sum total is - it is some picture, and I mean that in a positive way.The opening scene with the Easter bunny - well, I saw this on Maundy Thursday - was too realistic, as was the rape of the mother, viewed by the audience at a distance, but by her son as a close-up. He also witnessed the killing of his father, a combination that demanded, yes, demanded, retribution.Said youngster was ex-heartthrob Leif Garrett who was excellent in a role that put him on screen most of the time. Lee Van Cleef was on the screen for a short period of time and was his usual brooding s.o.b. self. He was an expert.His gang of heartless bad guys, and there was a gang of them, were, as they were supposed to be, totally obnoxious.The other star, of course, was ex-footballer, Jim Brown (no stranger to westerns) doing a very fine job as the mad, brooding hero of the piece."Kid Vengeance" - no kidding - is a western - an Israeli western yet -- oy vay - that will keep your attention from beginning to end. Don't - er - passover (yuk-yuk) this one. And, fie (ancient Roman for foo, or fooey) to those who dismiss this item.
FightingWesterner
Young Leif Garrett watches helplessly while his parents are murdered and his sister taken by a savage band of grimy cutthroats led by Van Cleef, who looks like a hippie with full facial growth, earring, long hair, and headband (probably holding the hair extensions in place), and Robert Morley. (best remembered for waking up next to a horse head in The Godfather)Garrett tracks the bandits and begins to slay them one by one before teaming up with gold miner Jim Brown to finish them off.Not a spaghetti western, this was an Isreali production made in Isreal by Golan-Globus, who did a better job (Van Cleef too) with God's Gun.Most people agree that Lee Van Cleef's career in westerns ended with a whimper, but I thought it was okay. Too bad that in the following twelve years nobody got him back in the saddle with a six-shooter. It would have been great having seen Lee Van Cleef on a horse in the action packed eighties.
hokeybutt
KID VENGEANCE (2 outta 5 stars) Cheaply-made and poorly-directed piece of western fluff starring Lee Van Cleef as one of the most vile villains he's ever played. This was during his later years when he was getting a bit long in the tooth to believably play those nasty, tough guy parts... but he is still the most interesting thing in this movie. He leads a bunch of bandits who rape and kill the mom and dad of young Leif Garrett and then kidnap his sister. Leif goes after them with "vengeance" on his mind. He begins to pick off the bandits one by one, using some pretty unconventional means (bow and arrow, rocks, scorpions, the old snake-in-the-saddlebag trick). He eventually teams up with a gold prospector (Jim Brown) whose life savings have been stolen by these men as well. The film starts off looking like a bad TV-movie... but once the raping and killing starts it becomes obvious that this was no "Movie Of The Week". You might be interested enough to sit through it once but this is no classic by any means.