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Lack of good storyline.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

When hard cop Luc Merenda discovers that the old cop he was just talking to that morning has been blown away by some escaped convicts, in addition to several other cops and an child, Luc dispenses justice the only way he knows how - by gunning the bad guys down in cold blood in front of all his colleagues. His superior tells Luc to cool it, then goes off to blow the lid on something he's discovered, getting himself murdered in the process. Now Luc's mad as hell and suspended from the force to boot, so he does the only thing he can - poses as a pimp to get access to a local gang as a getaway driver. That's a plan so daft that you'd have to bitch slap an awful lot of people to get there...and it works.Sure, Luc got a couple of women killed by accident when he called the cops on that robbery (plus the boyfriend of a junky girl who helps him out, plus I guess he gets her cooled too when I think about it), but it does get him noticed by local legitimate businessman Richard Conte, who might employ him, but wants him to demonstrate some mad GTA San Andreas type skills behind the wheel of a car. Does Luc feel guilty about those two women? I don't think he had the time. Of course, this is no straightforward film where Luc just gets his revenge on the bad guys, there's also some politics involved, as it seems the gang are more interested in causing as much havoc as possible than grabbing money, and someone may even be pulling Richard Conte's strings too.Although not up there with the best of the crime films, Violent Professionals is still a good film if you like these kind of things. You know, car chases, people firing guns at each other, Richard Conte's terrible stunt double, Luc Merenda violently assaulting everyone, funky music, smoking. Luc Merenda by the way looks like a really skinny Arnie and is very good at staring at things. Luciano Rossi turns up at the beginning to get himself shot too.

MILANO TREMA boasts some nice Milan location work and some very well-handled action sequences by Sergio Martino. The proceedings however get a little bogged down with a few too many subplots, unlikable characters, and lots and lots of talking about politics. Ernesto Gastaldi was one of the best of Italy's genre movie screenwriters, always able to inject some realism and dimensionality even into the small bit players. There's even some successful intentional humor, particularly during Luc Merenda's successful infiltration of a bank heist racket even though he's (a former?) chief of police.The car chases in this film really take the cake though as some of the best of the genre, and quite early in the cycle too. Footage from the chases popped up in numerous other crime films, particularly Umberto Lenzi's. Also, a lot of the same henchmen would pop up in film to film from here on out. While at first I was irked that the two bumbling goons (Claudio Ruffini and Sergio Smacchi) who get tasked with tailing Merenda around just disappear without any resolution, I was delighted to see teamed again (possibly as the same characters?) in such films as THE CYNIC THE RAT AND THE FIST.Granted, the success of this film, along with HIGH CRIME led to an explosion of Italian crime movies over the rest of the decade. The two films share much in common including featuring a fisticuffs- loving inspector using extreme methods to rid his city of crime to the tune of Guido and Maurizio De Angelis music. Oh yes, and Silvano Tranquilli appears in both, though his character here much less intimidating.

'Violent Professionals' is another ball-busting euro-crime title that appears on many a 'best of' threads and it's not hard to see why. Its continued success is due in no small part to the gleeful celebration of gratuitous violence that adds so much pep to the exploitation oeuvre of director, Sergio Martino. This snub-nosed poliziottto is a resounding keeper; while Luc 'smart hair of death' Merenda lacked the obvious barbarian machismo of, Nero & Merli, he cuts a svelte, dashing figure amongst all the under cranked vehicular slaughter, and Merenda always manages to emerge from dispatching any number of ill-bred thugs with his luxurious thatch of impossibly immaculate hair intact; for me, Luc Merenda will always remain the suave destroyer, a dapper vendor of death, Euro-Crime's deadliest fashonista.

After his beloved mentor and superior gets killed, rough'n'tumble loose cannon police lieutenant Giorgio Caneparo (well played by the handsome and charismatic Luc Merenda) goes undercover as a vicious criminal in order to infiltrate the bank robbing gang responsible for the hit. Director Sergio Martino, working from a tough, complex script by Ernesto Gastaldi and taking a break from his usual giallo murder mystery thrillers, takes a welcome stab at the Italian crime thriller genre and comes up with an impressively tight, gripping and hard-hitting winner: the constant quick pace rarely flags, the tone is appropriately harsh and no-nonsense (several innocent bystanders get killed which include a little girl and a pregnant woman!), there are occasional startling outbursts of brutal'n'bloody violence, the intricate narrative offers plenty of neat twists and turns, and the action set pieces ate deftly staged with rip-roaring élan (a couple of protracted car chases are especially exciting). This film further benefits from excellent acting by a tip-top cast: Merenda makes for a perfectly rugged and amoral anti-hero, Richard Conte lends able support as smooth capo Padulo, and the lovely Martine Brochard acquits herself nicely as brassy junkie prostitute Maria. Kudos are also in order for Giancarlo Ferrando's fluid, polished cinematography, the moody, groovy score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, and the bitterly cynical bummer ending which concludes everything on a satisfyingly downbeat note. Highly recommended viewing for Italian crime cinema fans.