Napoli si ribella

A mediocre poliziotteschi from the year when the popularity of this once super popular subgenre in Italian cinemas of the 70's started to slowly fade away and so did the yappy career of the charismatic Luc Merenda, who looked good on camera, but in all his films acted exactly the same, with a limited acting register. And Dardano Sacchetti, to him be eternal glory for his scripts for Fulci's masterpieces, didn't do anything world-class here either. We've got stolen drugs from the mafia, a bank robbery (which itself, by the way, was often used in poliziotteschi, I've seen it myself in at least five films), some violence, one naked pretty Italian girl, two weak car chases, just... over and over again, nothing we haven't seen in previous films of the genre. I'm not surprised the Italians themselves started to get into it. There's some attempt at levity here, delivered by Merenda's hunchbacked sidekick (perhaps to make Merenda's tall figure stand out) who throws childish jabs, but it doesn't work either, I was bored. Umberto Lenzi's films with Maurizio Merli were a different brew, dumb as a bag of bricks, but high-octane from start to finish. (08/05/2024)

When it's silent and there are chases, shooting and a fitting soundtrack, it's an exhibition of the subgenre of 1970s Italian Euro-crime films. But once they start with the sort of messed up plot and the childish humour starts (which is unfortunately often), it's nothing but a few slaps from Bud Spencer. (07/07/2021)