The "Squadra Anti-(insert type of crime)" movie-cycle ideally underlines what I love so much about Italian cult-cinema from the 70s & early 80s period. They are wildly uneven and surprising. After the dull previous entry - "Squadra Antimafia" - I honestly presumed the series would only go further downhill, and yet this next sequel is another fun and vastly superior installment.
First, a little bit of context. "Squadro Antigangsters" is the fifth entry in a series of no less than eleven (!) comedy/crime crossbreed movies, written & directed by Bruno Corbucci and starring Tomas Millian as the rebellious and unorthodox cop Nick Giraldi. The films are relatively easy to trace thanks to a specific pattern in the titles. The first five are named "Squadra Anti" + a kind of criminal activity. "Anti-Kidnap Squad", "Anti-Theft Squad", "Anti-Swindle Squad", etc. The last five movie titles all start with "Delitto", so we have "Crime on the Highway", "Crime at the Chinese Restaurant", etc. Only the sixth film has a unique title and refers to a murder plot.
Nico Geraldi remained in New York after the previous adventure. He is supposedly no longer a cop and wants to focus on his greatest talent: setting up swindles and smuggling himself as a small-time crook. He ends up in the "business" as a debt collector for a mafia organization but finds out that his good friend Salvatore is up to his head in debt with his Pizzeria restaurant. To help him, he has to get money from the rich (but very ugly) daughter of the New York mafia imperium. Although she is still madly in love with Nico, Maria Sole is now engaged, and Nico discovers that her fiancé is stealing millions of dollars from the organization. If he can unmask him, Salvatore's debts will certainly be annulled...
"Antigangsters" has a much more engaging and structured plot than the previous films, and it makes great use of the locations in New York and - especially - exotic Florida, where Nico and Salvatore have to endure a chase on a motorboat in The Everglades, among other things. Of course, there is still a lot of humor in the film, but no more of the exaggerated slapstick and idiotic nonsense from the first films. A very funny moment is when Nico causes total traffic chaos after a car chase, while a gang of old people tell from the balcony of their retirement home how quiet, safe, and relaxing life in Miami is. There's a nice supporting role for the beautiful Asha Puthli (which really made me wonder why she hasn't acted in more films), a catchy soundtrack, and a nice twist at the end (which is already revealed and spoiled here on the website in the plot synopsis...)
