Stunt Squad

Stunt Squad (La Polizia E Sconfitta) (1977)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Domenico Paoletta

Starring: Marcel Bozzuffi, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Riccardo Salvino, Nello Pazzafini, Claudia Giannotti

From: Atlas Film

As I seemingly say every single time I watch a poliziotteschi now, “it's been awhile since I last saw one of those.” A messageboard post directed me to someone on the Rupert Pupkin Speaks blog talking about that film and even though it sounded quite similar to something I saw 3 years ago (Colt 38 Special Squad, which even has the star of this movie, Marcel Bozzuffi, in almost the exact same role, as an exacerbated police chief who sets up a special squad of loose cannon cops to go after the bad guys), I still wanted to give it a shot and hey, it was for free on Amazon Prime so that made things easy for me.

In Colt 38, Marcel forms the squad mainly because some bad guys killed his wife. I've seen so many of these the past 5 or so years the details are fuzzy, but I remember enjoying it quite a bit and GRACE JONES is in one scene, singing in a nightclub. This, in comparison, I can only say was good. Plenty of time is spent with the bad guy and he was compelling, but I wish there could've been more with the actual stunt squad; I'd have love to seen them be over the top and raise almost as much hell as the villains.

In this film, dude I'll call Not Aaron Eckhart raises a lot of hell, so the squad is formed. The strange thing is, we see the squad do some wacky-ass training in a montage and yet a lot of the action is done by Bozzuffi instead of the titular squad. I found it to be odd. There being only one squad member that isn't a faceless entity is more understandable, but I still thought the mix was peculiar.

Even then, I can say this was good. I loved such things as the action scenes (there's the requisite automobile chases and yes some of them involved motorcycles) and the funky Stelvio Cipriani score. I was bemused then amused that Not Aaron Eckhart only wore out outfit, that being black pants, a boss white with black accents jacket... and no shirt on underneath. “#Look”

Then there were things that greatly amused me, such as the unexpected ending-that I dare not spoil-and two rather sleazy moments that seem appropriate in a genre film; poliziotteschi films are always known for that anyway:

1) Many of these flicks have at least one scene in a nightclub; this was no exception. However, this went incredibly unsubtle and for no reason whatsoever, during a song played by a funky jazz band, several women took off their tops and danced around!

2) Most of you know the motif where it's at night in a terrible inner-city location and to stay warm on a bone-chilling night, trash is lit in a giant 55 gallon drum and everyone huddles around. Here, it is what I presume is a briskly cool morning, and some prostitutes are standing around. To stay warm-because they are scantily-clad-the way they stay warm is... build campfires on the street. Yes, as in putting together a pile of logs & branches and lighting that s*** on fire! Incredible.

Not the best I've ever seen in this genre but I don't regret seeing it either, even if for the bizarre moments.