STUNT SQUAD is another above average Italian polizia film from a genre packed with rare gems. These '70s films always packed in groovy and exciting music tracks with fast-paced plots and hefty amounts of violence that Hollywood-style productions would inevitably shy away from. This film features the titular motorbike-riding cop squad who are employed to track down a gangster in the city who has been running a protection racket single-handedly.

There is much to enjoy about STUNT SQUAD, which ticks all of the right boxes and delivers entertainment in spades. It's not the most action-packed of its type but the car chases and stunt crashes are handled with aplomb and the direction is never less than exciting. Marcel Bozzuffi, the French actor best known for playing the hit-man in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, is a fine choice as the tough cop who assembles the team, and Vittorio Mezzogiorno is thoroughly reprehensible as the ruthless bad guy. The film doesn't skimp on the violence either with explicit bombs, a hospital murder as gory as any giallo, and a literally crowd-pleasing climax. One disco scene with topless stripping women supplies the nudity quotient. STUNT SQUAD is what I call top entertainment.

Protection rackets are running wild in the streets of Italy. The poor shopkeepers are fed up, but feel they are powerless against the muscle of the ever-increasing criminal gangs. The baddie of all baddies, a psychopath named Valli (Mezzogiorno) is not only the king fish all the cops want to catch, but is also a vicious killer and even a "phone bomber", a guy who exacts payment by placing bombs in telephones, so when someone calls your business - kaboom. But Valli has met his match in the take-no-guff police commissioner Grifi (Bozzuffi). Grifi wants to clean up the streets, so, noticing that he and his force are not dealing with ordinary criminals, they come up with an extraordinary solution. Saying "simple cops can't beat 'em - we need commandos", Grifi forms the Stunt Squad, a highly trained band of law enforcement that ride super-fast motorbikes and shoot to kill. But will it be enough to stop Valli? Find out today! We here at Comeuppance Reviews absolutely love the 1970's Italian Poliziotteschi movement, and this seems to be one of its lesser-seen titles. We can't seem to get enough of movies of this place and time, and apparently they were borne out of a real-life crime epidemic in the Italy of the day. The locations, the fashions, and the music all gel together with the violent plots and the result is addictive viewing. The power-team of writer Dardano Sacchetti, director Domenico Paolella, and the score by Stelvio Cipriani provide a solidly entertaining addition to the genre.

Director Paolella seems to be concentrating on certain aspects not always associated with these types of Italian crime films - for instance suspenseful setups and varying uses of pace. At one moment, it seems slow, but then it speeds up, almost like the dynamics of the music of Cipriani. Plus this movie has one of the coolest training sequences we've seen in some time: in order to properly train his guys to become the Stunt Squad, they have to practice hitting targets with their guns while zooming on their motorbikes, and to somehow fit collaring criminals into their wheelie-popping schedule. Naturally, there are some great chase sequences, among other fine moments. Probably our only complaint about this movie is that it could have used more Stunt Squad. There are some pretty lengthy sections without them. But that's a minor quibble for this enjoyable movie.

The film was released on VHS in North America on the cleverly-named label Lettuce Entertain You. Not only is this lettuce Canadian, but it's thought that it might be a bootleg (or at the least, grey-market) tape. That might help explain the fuzzy, washed-out, poor quality of the VHS. While we recommend this movie, we don't recommend this tape. Sad, it does the film a disservice, but it's a testament to the film that it can overcome these shortcomings and still manage to entertain. But on the upside, the dubbing does give us gems like "You have to start combing Bologna to find Valli". While they're clearly talking about the region in Italy, it's not every day you hear the words "combing Bologna" said. Or done for that matter. It just sounds funny.

Perhaps the reason why Elimination Force hasn't joined the top tier of Poliziotteschi titles is because more people don't know about it, because of its unfortunate release on Lettuce Entertain You. Hopefully that will start to change, and if we're lucky, a DVD release will correct the record.

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I don't think Italian director Domenico Paolella knew exactly what he had when he was making 'Stunt Squad' back in 1977. The premise, the story line, and the bad guy are all excellent ingredients for a hardcore action film made today. In fact, I nominate Quentin Tarantino to revamp this film, because it sorely needs it. Judging by the title and box art, you'd think there were tons of action involving an actual stunt squad on motor bikes, causing mass mayhem. That's not exactly the case here.

In fact, 'Stunt Squad' is actually quite slow and it's almost an hour until the supposed 'Stunt Squad' shows up. And even then, it isn't that suspenseful or even thrilling. And once the mild action ends, it's back to the social and political dialogue of 1977 Italy. I'm telling you, someone today, could make this 38-year old film into something highly entertaining and fun, worth of millions of dollars. Here, some local gangsters are terrorizing the good citizens and businesses of a town in Italy.

These thugs have no morals or ethics, and pretty much do anything to make squeeze people out of money, including murder of innocent people. The thugs are basically led by a man named Valli (Vittorio Mezzogiorno),who is planting bombs in public places, killing tons of people. In fact, some people would say that Valli is one of the most evil villains in Italian cinema. A police inspector by the name of Grifi (Marcel Bozzuffi) takes on the case to take down Valli and his henchmen. But Grifi can't handle all this violence on his own, so he decides to summon a gang of people of his own, known as the 'Stunt Squad'.

While we see a training sequence of this 'Stunt Squad' shooting guns from motorcycles and other various forms of combat training, these people are no stuntmen. In fact, they are more like police officers on motor bikes who chase cars and sometimes shoot their guns. That's about it for the all powerful 'Stunt Squad'. And this all leads up to a climactic moment as Valli and Grifi are both closing in on each other to wipe out each other. This all being said, the film lacks some real thrilling action sequences, that is until the final scene, which is actually very impressive. I just wish there was more substance to what came before it.

There are tons of moments where Paolella could have gone for broke and made a very violent and entertaining action mob movie, but instead, it consists mostly of people talking about what they want to do rather than actually getting the job done. This aspect I think can be fixed with a reboot of the film in the right hands. I think Paolella wanted to tell a violent story here, but he also wanted to talk about the political and social climate in Italy at the time and just how much some of the cities were run by gangsters.

Unfortunately for us, this political talk takes up most of the movie. It would have been nice if the dialogue was smart, witty, or at least engaging, but it isn't here. But I will say that at least this movie was on to something big and it does have a few scenes that would make Tarantino giddy. I just wish that 'Stunt Squad' focused more the action portion rather than the political dialogue.