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.

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.

One of the better Italian crime films of the genre, it's also a fairly obscure one and although the plot is hardly original, the film never lets up and delivers more than it's fair share of thrills. Marcel Bozzuffi (of French Connection & Fulci's Contraband amongst other) is as reliable as always, this time as Inspector Grifi who sets up a special unit of commandos (the 'stunt squad') to combat the rise of violence towards innocent shop owners who refuse protection from the rackets. Their number one target is main villain Valli, who surprisingly turns out to be quite a memorable bad guy - impulsively gunning down, and in some cases exploding, anything that stands in his way. The best moments of the film are when Grifi and his Stunt Squad are pursuing Valli. Amongst some mild nudity (courtesy of the obligatory but very welcome night club scene) there are also some pretty brutal moments including a vicious throat slashing & repeated knifing of an hospital patient and **spoliers** the death of a double crossing pimp (Nello Pazzafini who can be seen in over 100 euro crime, Giallo and Westerns) who is beaten, castrated and then gunned down. (There is a very generous amount of blood squibs - no 'bloodless' deaths here!). I would highly recommend this to fans of Italian & Euro crime, it's pretty solid throughout and doesn't have any of the unnecessary humour or cheesy moralising which ruins so many other films of it's type.

Marcel Bozzuffi stars as comissioner Griffi, yet another hard boiled cop out to rough up the bad guys. Valli, had of a vicious protection racket, has his men plant bombs in the phones of citizens who won't pay up.after an old woman is killed in one of the attacks, Griffi forms the "stunt squad," a team of motorcycle riding cops trained in martial arts and stunt driving.okay, it sounds silly, but there's lots of cool chase scenes, car crashes, shootouts, beatings and explosions. the score by Stelvio Cipriani is great, as always, fitting the action perfectly.spoiler....... another cool thing is the ending where Valli gets lynched, the mob is broken up, then he gets lynched again!that's the first time i've seen that!