MARIO GAUCI Surprisingly engaging poliziottesco spoof which actually led to a series, all featuring star Tomas Milian as maverick cop Nico Giraldi; in fact, a total of 11 films were made between 1976 and 1984! I know a few of them turned up on Italian TV as a kid but I had always considered them - and Milian's other contemporaneous series revolving around a character nicknamed "Monnezza" (Italian slang for "garbage"), but which lasted for only 3 'episodes' - low-brow, indeed bottom-of-the-barrel, stuff; considering that their titles - and I'm sure plot lines - were basically interchangeable certainly makes their longevity astounding! Well, action-packed though it is - with the star (playing a street-wise ex-delinquent dressed as a bum with a mouse, Serpico, for a pet!) going through many a stunt on a motor-bike - the film's most prominent trait is its vulgarity which doesn't merely extend to a proliferation of colorful swearwords; indeed, the very first scene shows a chubby young man mooning a group of Japanese tourists from across the street, in order to distract them while his accomplices make off with their luggage in a van! As such, the film is enjoyable in an unassuming way - though the muddy soundtrack and the characters' frequent resort to the use of dialect made the dialogue a bit of a chore to understand, even for one who's fluent in the language like myself! - and it's certainly made even more tolerable by the presence of a predictably ruthless Jack Palance (whose real identity proves quite a revelation!).The finale, then, is at once amusing and clever in that Milian - assigned to a special squad dealing with "snatch & grab" cases, hence the original title SQUADRA ANTISCIPPO - resorts to just such a crime in order to help his lovely girlfriend, whose job it is to smuggle provocative literature into the country!; they had met when Milian saved the girl from being raped: keeping her watch and other valuables in her bra, he wonders what she'd say if someone asked her the time, perhaps "a quarter to tits"?! P.S. at one point, Milian says "La Polizia Ringrazia" (The Police Is Thankful) - which happens to be the title of the 1972 film (released in the U.S. as EXECUTION SQUAD) credited with kick-starting the whole poliziottesco subgenre!

mrhubbahubba00 ...so retarded, in fact, that it is actually mildly amusing. I highly recommend this for anyone who plans to watch it with a bunch of friends while in an intoxicated state. Although I was not intoxicated when I viewed this bowl of soggy Italian pasta (in fact, i was eating vegetables and whole wheat crackers) I still had a difficult time picking out any blue jeans. As others have mentioned...Jack Palance only staggers onto the screen for a few brief moments before collecting his paycheck and heading out for booze (or vegetables and wheat crackers). There seems to be no story line whatsoever - just a few vaguely familiar thugs (didn't I see that guy with the terrible haircut a few scenes ago? no wait...that was another terrible haircut guy) thumping on each other (just for the fun of it) to tinny Italian meatball music. An incredibly painful/comical waste of 95 minutes.

sol1218 (There Are Some Spoilers) Light hearted crime movie that seems to have a wedding music soundtrack, even though some dozen people are brutally killed in it,about a robbery ring in Rome who end up getting way over their heads when they rob big time US mobster Norman Shelly, Jack Palance, of 5 million dollars in cash, or did they? Shelly has his hoods track down one of the robbers at a pool hall where he's savagely beaten to death. The head of the ring the Barron, Guldo Mannari, tries to have the cash fenced into Italian Liars and US Traverlers Checks but is ambushed, at the fences office, by undercover cop Nico Giraldi, Thomas Millan. After a ten minute slug-fest the Barron is arrested and cuffed and later sent to the hospital as bait to get the Shelly gang to kidnap him to find out where he hid the money, which in reality Nico and the Roman PD. Grabbed by the Shelly mob, disguised as hospital workers, they get the information that they want from the Barron who tells them that the money is hidden in this old abandoned iron factory. Nico and the Roman police set up an ambush there of the Shelly Mob and after a wild shoot out and car motorcycle chase, with Nico on the bike,Shelly escapes from justice to the US Embessy in Rome! We then find out that Norman Shelly is not just an American mobster in Rome but a high placed and Senior American diplomat, Richard Russo, at the US Embessy there and has immunity from arrest as long as he's at the American compound. Even though Nico can't arrest Shelly/Russo right then and there but gives the big time hood/diplomat something to remember him by with a hard kick in the midsection. It's also reviled, like Nico suspected, that Shelly/Russo was actually in charge of the robbery gang that robbed him of his 5 million dollars which was the result of a ransom that mobster/kidnapper Shelly/Russo got a while back. This was done to have the money later laundered by the fence and returned back to him clean and unmarked. Thomas Millan as Nico styled himself after the NYPD crusading policeman Frank Serpico in the movie "Cop in Blue Jeans". Nico had a giant poster of Al Pacino as Serpico in his shabby apartment. The girls and young women in the movie went completely Ga-Ga over him, like they would have done over the handsome and heroic Frank Serpico. Nico also has a pet white rat in the movie that he aptly named Serpico. There was also a sub-plot and love interest, for Nico, in the film involving young and pretty book publisher Signora Callani, Maria Rosaria, who's important Russian novel manuscript was stolen.Nico being a former crook before he joined the Rome police Department got the manuscript back to Signora by using his long out of practice and dormant pick-pocketing skills.

CelluloidRehab Tomas Milian is a very good Italian actor who is know for play non-traditional protagonists. He plays Nico, 1/2 cop - 1/2 ex-con, who is dirty (literally), unshaved and doesn't like to wash (he also wears multiple pairs of socks, shirts and an ugly assortment of hats). This movie attempts (unsuccessfully) to capture (exploit) various elements of successful American movies and themes. The director definitely enjoyed Steve McQueen in the Great Escape (the director loves motorcycles - he put them everywhere in the movie. I'm surprised they weren't listed in the credits) and Al Pacino in Serpico (a poster hangs in Nico's apartment - and he names his white mouse Serpico). Thats where the similarities end. There are so many pointless motorcycle jumps, and chase sequences (the sequences are accompanied by Italian "spaghetti" music - one expects some pizza and sausages to fly in during the sequences) and fights, that one wonders what movie the director is trying to pay "homage" to. The criminal element in Italy is quite comical. The "bad" guys, who are indistinguishable from the "good" guys, usually surrender willingly once caught. They actually stand there .. and wait patiently while the cops fumble to cuff them. This movie does have a heavy Hollywood power to the credits, namely Jack Palance. If you watch this movie, you will be saying the same thing : "Where the hell is Jack ?" Jack is literally in 4 scenes (one scene shouldn't count considering it was mostly a stunt driver and Jack in a stationary vehicle) throughout the movie and a total screen presence of about 10 minutes. Out of the scenes he is in, he is dealt much physical harm; from the spray paint (mace) to the face to the infamous Nico knee to the crotch diplomacy tactic. In the end, this movie is more pointless than going to the corner store to get some smokes. If you want to see a good Milian movie, check out Companeros. If you want to see a good Jack Palance movie .. ... keep looking. In the end, this is a great movie for insomniacs and those returning from a night of debauchery.