I 7 di Marsa Matruh

If you subscribe to the old adage of 'if you have seen one low-budget, bullet-blasted Italian WW2 actioner you've seen 'em all, then it seems entirely logical to say that if you liked one, you'll probably dig em all! Director Mario Siciliano's not uninteresting desert-set shoot 'em up is given additional lustre by the charismatic presence of dashing euro-cult icon Ivan Rassimov as the stern, hard-line stiff upper lipped Lieutenant Alan Crossland. Precariously cut-off from their own unit, consistently threatened by advancing hordes of Rommel's relentless Afrika Korps, this rag-tag outfit take increasingly daring risks just to survive! After a desperate skirmish or three, this wearisome, perpetually thirsting patrol pick up three stranded, delicious-looking nurses, which adds a welcome reprieve from the sweaty macho tableau of desperate, fearfully fighting men!

While Siciliano's shrapnel-shredded 'Overrun' doesn't offer a ceaseless barrage of maniacal, macaroni-flavoured militaristic mayhem, it certainly delivers on the acting performances, which are uniformly strong, with the delectable starlet Monica Strebel being especially pleasant to behold! The stridently dubbed voices are soothingly familiar, and the noisome final act builds up to a rousingly ordinance overloaded climax, wherein our dangerously outgunned and oppressively out-Tanked heroes stoically battle against hellacious hordes of Hitler's Hellhounds! There's a far from displeasing Spaghetti western vibe throughout, due in no small part to the hazy expanses of heat-blanched desert vistas and music maestro Cipriani's dynamic knack for writing uniquely exhilarating themes! And once again, the mesmerically masculine Ivan Rassimov's angular, intense visage lights up the screen like a prism!