Squadra antiscippo

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!

I like old spaghetti police movies! Always dark, violents and originals. And they usually got a very good soundtrack. This one is no exception. The beginning is great, starting exactly like Street Law: small criminals doing pickpocket and many violent acts on bike. then come Millian violently punishing these little criminals. jack palance play a great bad guy, even if you know that he didnt put a lot of effort in this role. The first half is very good, but the second, I admit, is a little bit boring. Recommended for Millian and Bruno Corbucci fan and for the killer soundtrack by Guido and Maurizio...so cool.

Ah, Record Explosion in NYC has granted me the privilege of watching this incredible piece of cinematic forte. OK, maybe not, but it was only $4.

This entertaining yarn mostly lets Nico show what he does best: catching baddies with street finesse. Tomas Milian (credited on the box as Tunas Milian) portrays a hardcore street tough turned on the good side of the law pretty well. Laughs a plenty with his pimping scene in the disco club. I believe there are 9 total motorcycle jumps and most are unnecessary and where where the ramps?? See Nico mistreat a gal who ends up coming back for more; despite his insisting on not changing his socks. And his jeans are clearly black, not blue!!

On the cover of the box is Jack Palance visage surrounded by dollar bills and is credited as starring in this. I think it should have said "Showing up on camera when the booze ran out". Jack mostly scowls and doesn't do any of the dirty work (he didn't get paid enough for it). Like in his other classic Outlaw of Gor, Jack shows up early on, then goes from bar to bar then reappears one hour and 12 minutes into it to pick up his paycheck. He really deserves a quick knee to the nether region.

THE COP IN BLUE JEANS, the US title of this film, was quite widely available in the video budget bins of the 80s and early 90s, so this may be the best known in the US of Tomas Milian's series of films as longhaired, unconventional cop Nico Giraldi. The films starts with a bang as a mini-crimewave is depicted in rapid-fire succession (the scene with the guy mooning the tourists to divert their attention as their possessions are stolen is a classic!), until after seven or eight minutes Milian jumps into action. Like most films of Bruno Corbucci, there is a serious political element in the film too, while it completely satisfies fans who just want an exciting violent action film. And of course, Tomas Milian is brilliant, creating an anti-hero (as he does so well!) who is unlike ANYONE in US cinema. I'm sure there are copies of this sitting in the 99-cent rack of video stores, so check it out if you want to see what is so good about the 1970s Italian police film genre or why Tomas Milian is one of the great icons of world film. My favorite film of this period w/ Milian is SWINDLE, where he is paired with David Hemmings. If you EVER see that offered or shown on TV, don't miss it!

After the spaghetti western genre died in Italy, Italian filmmakers moved to cop movies. Like with spaghetti westerns, there were good and not so good efforts, this movie belonging to the latter category. Tomas Milian, an actor who's made an impression in other movies, seems kind of helpless here, thanks to the costume department dressing him up like a homeless person, and a screenplay that gives him very few opportunities to show some kind of character. Jack Palance is pretty much wasted - he only makes two very brief appearances in the first hour, and not much more in the last half hour. But the main problem with the movie is that it feels oh so tired. There are chases, punch-ups, and guns fired, but it all feels so mechanical. Maybe that's why the musical score plays the same bars of music over and over ad nauseum. Even die hard fans of Eurocult movies would be better off skipping this one.