This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

An exiled American soldier known as the Dutchman gathers together a bunch of fellows to embark on a train robbery, telling them that although the locals think they're stealing the gold dust for the Mexican revolution, the gold is really for themselves.Our Five Man Army is made up of the Dutchman, the Captain (an explosives expert), Bud Spencer (a…food expert I guess), the Samurai, and a young guy whose name escapes me. It's a heist movie, basically, with loads of Spaghetti Western action thrown in. And an Ennio Morricone soundtrack for good measure.As with the majority of these films, there's plenty of gunfights to keep you going as our army square up to Mexican soldiers, get involved in riots, have punch ups and generally cause mayhem until we get to the heist, which is rather cleverly done and not without tensions.While not an outstanding film, this is a good time waster with plenty of likable characters and a few twists thrown in for good measure.

You want familiar, familiar spaghetti western… look no further than "The Five Man Army". Its real lack of originality is made up by its sense of adventure and entertainment as five comrades come together to hatch up a plan to steal a railway shipment of gold from a merciless general. There's nothing mean-spirited, or violent as even when the twist makes its way in. It's rather goodwill in approach and the script does offer up the clues to where all this scheming its heading to. Some interesting names do show-up on this project. Director Don Taylor, co-writer Dario Argento, actors Peter Graves (charismatically getting by with his suave style) and Bud Spencer (being his brute self)… then there's Ennio Morricone who provides once again a characteristically fruitful signature western score that went hand-to-hand with on-screen action and nice scenic scope. You could say there's nothing particularly rousing or even memorable about this (outside the music score), however the pace is streamlined, the genre staples are well orchestrated, dialogue never distracts, characters while safe are agreeable and there's an intense moment or so in a typical, but well done spaghetti western.

I hardly see 60's or 70's western movies but whatever I've seen so far are gems. The Five Man Army may or may not be a classic but it still makes for an entertaining watch. The train heist the five men do looks very unsophisticated but the matter in which they plan and do it is applause-worthy. Definitely, the best parts of the movie are the entire train robbery scenes.Peter Graves as the leader of the five is dashingly handsome and there are few leading Hollywood stars today who look as good as this suave man. Rest of the gang too seem like a perfect fit too. If you substitute actor Tetsuro Tamba for someone else as Samurai, you may not miss much but others like actors James Daly, Bud Spencer & Nino Castelnuovo are bang on fit for their characters.Good story, action and music - everything required for an old Western potboiler is in here.Verdict: A feel-good movie. You'll have a nice time.

The Five Man Army are "The Dutchman" (Peter Graves) and four colleagues from previous escapades - Mesito (Bud Spencer), a big brute of a man that can knock out an opponent with a big thump to the top of the head (so, the usual Bud Spencer character then!); Samurai (Tetsuro Tamba), a ruthless sword bearing oriental; Captain Augustus (James Daly), an expert with dynamite; and Luis Dominguez (Nino Castelnuovo) an acrobat turned outlaw and the "baby" of the group.The Dutchman has gathered the clan with the promise of a $1,000 reward if they can successfully carry out a robbery of a train (bearing gold to the value of £1 million) on behalf of the Mexican Revolution. The catch is that the train is heavily guarded by soldiers, with the military posted at regular intervals along the journey to resist any attempted theft.This film is an Italian/American co-production, and it does bear traits of both nations particular western styles. It is at times highly entertaining, mostly pretty dumb but always very watchable. The highlight of the movie is the contrasting characters, who are all very likable (albeit fairly clichéd). James Daly in particular has a good role as the ageing Captain Augustus, constantly doubting his (and his colleagues) ability to carry out the heist.The actual robbery itself takes up nigh on half an hour of this movie, with very little dialogue. The scene is well filmed though and does not drag too badly at all. It also features a great scene where the bodies of the armed soldiers are waved about frantically as a signal to the nearby patrolling military that all is well.Ennio Morricone's score is rousing (of course), but does sound like a muddled jigsaw of many of his other works. It fits perfectly, however.It may sound like I am being critical of this film, and I guess that there are a few shortcomings with it. But if you ignore its occasional predictability and just take it for what it is - a highly entertaining yet simple western - you are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it from beginning to end. I know I did.