The Violent Professionals

A solid but unremarkable crime drama with lots of posturing and dull scenes that tend to drag. The film lack suspense or tension as well as having an unfocused story that never really seems to get going. Extra points for the relatively cool car chase.

Stylish hard-boiled thriller in an American style but set in 1970s Milan. Lots of plot twists but room for good characterisation and classy outfits.

Competently directed the action and car chase scenes are enjoyable. But the plot is hard to follow, because it's near impossible to understand why the protagonist does what he doest many times, like robbing a random prostitute or getting in gambling debt in a pool hall. It's only because I read the summary of the plot I understood what his plan was. Which makes it hard to invest in his revenge story. Also the movie has some overly violent moments which make little sense just to be movie "cool".

Charming, charming (formally joyful and with a badass soundtrack!), if periodically a bit dull...

This was a very positive surprise as I didn't think too highly of Martino's other crime film "Gambling City" and thought that he was basically only good at giallos. Gastaldi's script contains a lot of twists and turns and Merenda's protagonist gives Dirty Harry a run for his money. The score by De Angeliis is occasionally very simple but strangely it works and supports the film nicely. Martino's direction is energetic and the tempo is high throughout which makes the film highly re-watchable.