E tutto in biglietti di piccolo taglio

If one goes to the movies a lot, it is often a bit more interesting when one has read the original work first. Ed McBain was also known as mystery writer Evan Hunter when he wrote the first of many stories surrounding his famous 87th Precinct. The series centered mostly around the reoccurring characters in his Police Station. This compilation series became the basis for the Hollywood movie called " Fuzz. " In the film, Burt Reynolds plays Det. Steve Carella, Jack Weston is Det. Meyer Meyer while Tom Skerritt plays Det. Bert Kling. With the arrival of newcomer Det. Eileen McHenry (Raquel Welch) the precinct sets out to solve a trio of baffling crimes. Formost in their sights is the mad bomber (Yul Brynner) out to extort millions from high city officials by threatening to kill them if they don't pay up. Although there is a serious attempt to convey real police drama concerning juvenile assaults, multiple arson and serial rape, the comic atmosphere and jovial levity, renders all efforts moot. Interestingly, the drama was attempted, but the end result proved more humorous than serious, rendering the movie a silly exercise with no solid resolutions. The surprising appearances of Albert Popwell as Lewis and Yul Brenner as a heavy, meant it was not a total loss. ***

The film's poster indicates that Fuzz is a raucous Burt Reynolds vehicle. When it is a gritty ensemble piece that mixes slapstick, comedy and crime drama.

Based on Ed McBain's 87th Precinct. The screenplay is written by McBain using his real name and it has criss crossing storylines featuring the cops from 87th Precinct relocated to Boston.

Detective Steve Carella (Reynolds) is posing as an homeless man as someone is setting the local bums on fire. Detective Eileen McHenry (Raquel Welch) is a specialist transferred to the precinct to deal with rape crimes.

There is an extortionists known as the Deaf Man (Yul Brynner) who calls the police station making demands for money. If his demands are not met, he will kill a city official.

The Deaf Man has targeted the station because the cops are inept. Some of them cops are irritated by the wisecracking decorators sent by the city's maintenance department.

I expected Fuzz to be more like the French Connection with Reynolds as the main lead. It ends up more like MASH. An uneven hybrid of genres. It is a good but patchy film.

The film's conclusion is a messy series of coincidences.

Somehow it is also ahead of its time anticipating television dramas like Hill Street Blues that would arrive by the early 1980s.

Burt Reynolds is so laid-back in this picture I thought he might fall over. He, Jack Weston and Tom Skerritt are cops at the Boston Precinct trying to stop a serial killer from blowing up more politicians, Yul Brynner is the bad guy who knows just what clueless cops these guys are, and Raquel Welch is the new badge in the building (the guys humiliate her for awhile, but she's tough and proves her merit). This is a routine cop comedy with dramatic and sometimes violent overtones, not unlike "MASH" (which it attempts to emulate in its cynicism). It was moderately popular in theaters in 1972 mainly because Burt Reynolds had just posed for Cosmo magazine and the ads and the movie one-sheet played that up. I liked Welch's scenes defending herself in the office (where she's been unceremoniously dumped at a desk) and the climactic moments are well done. The end vocal by Dinah Shore is a wonderful bit (Burt was dating her at the time). But that very last shot is perplexing: there's no explanation for it, and I'm sure it left audiences baffled. It's an artistic shot, done with humor, but considering what happens before it, it makes no logical sense. **1/2 from ****

After reading several bad reviews of this film I was almost afraid to watch it. I hate wasting my time on bad movies, but I decided based on the cast to give it a go and I'm glad I did. The movie is not a fast paced comedy by any stretch of the imagination. It is instead, like many movies from it's time, a slow moving style of film along the lines of The Big Fix. It keeps your interest because the characters are interesting. It makes you laugh at times and actually has a little suspense mixed into a story that seems disjointed at first, but ties together so well in the end it makes the whole movie work.

The plot centers partially around a bombers scheme to blackmail the city of Boston, but more so around the police precinct he chooses to contact with his threats. We see a group of officers trying to get through their daily routine as they work on several cases at once. Focusing on the bomber but still trying to deal with a myriad of other problems that present themselves as they try to solve other crimes. It presents itself as more of a "day in the life" type movie rather than a film with one main focus. It's well acted, well told and is a good movie for those times when you really want to just relax and get into a story. Sure it has a few weak spots as with most movies but it is certainly worth putting on and I'm very glad I had the chance to see it.

In short, if your looking for Starskey & Hutch 2005, this isn't it. If your looking for a slow paced intelligent movie, don't let bad reviews chase you away and give this film a shot.

Based on the same characters as the early 60s TV series 87th PRECINCT that starred Robert Lansing, Norman Fell, Gena Rowlands and others. The TV series was based in New York City but here the 87th Precinct is in Boston (though no one has a Boston accent).

Burt Reynolds stars in this ensemble comedy/drama about a mad bomber trying to extort money from a wealthy man. It's an uneasy mix of comedy and drama especially when people start getting blown up. The cops also come off as a bunch of really stupid oafs without any common sense at all.

Reynolds plays the same character Lansing played on TV. Raquel Welch shows up as a cop and is totally miscast and unbelievable, though to be fair, it's a badly written role. Other cops include Jack Weston, Tom Skerritt, James McEachin, Steve Ihnat, Dan Frazer, and others. Gino Conforti and Gerald Hiken plays i for laughs as a copy of wisecracking painters assigned to re-do the squad room. And Neile Adams shows up for one scene as Reynolds' deaf wife (the Rowlands part on TV).

The bad guys are headed by Yul Brynner as a hearing-impaired maniac and Don Gordon and Peter Bonerz as his main stooges. There's also a couple of kids played by Charles Martin Smith and Gary Morgan who run around torching drunks (a real barrel of laughs).

Nothing quite works and the film makes Boston look like a burned out slum.