Worth it for the action-packed finale but very uninspired getting thereFor most of its running time Enzo G. Castellari's The Heroin Busters is an exercise in lazy plotting and almost arbitrary box ticking as it flatly trudges through the usual cops and drug runners clichés, which wouldn't matter so much if the action scenes were better. Unfortunately despite a decent botched evidence room robbery, it's a film that's saving most of its ammunition for its grand finale. But when it comes, it's a grand enough finale for you to forgive a lot of the padding it took to get there, the final twenty minutes offering a prolonged chase through a subway construction site and the ruins around the Caracarla Opera that displays the kind of verve and imagination so much of the film had been lacking until then, and clearly influencing both Diva and Lethal Weapon 3 along the way. It's well worth waiting for.
David Hemmings' Interpol cop doesn't have much to do apart from make the odd bad tempered speech or copping a feel from an obliging girl on a...
Eurofilm, with outstanding results based on budget and technology of 70'sHEROIN BUSTERS, or translated literally from the Italian, "The
Drug Avenue" (la Via della Droga), is a fascinating,
action-packed movie, pulling all the stops for thrills and
action, not excluding plenty of gun-shooting, in a race between
the criminal element and law enforcement. There's motorcycle,
airplane and car chases around Italy on land, foot and air.
The action is dubbed in English, in an extremely fluent,
understandable manner.
The success of this movie, is that it is outstanding in its
quality considering the "technology" that was at the director's
disposal at the time. Obviously, the Hollywood studios, with
100's of millions of USD greater budgets, and with technology 20
years newer than at the time the film was made, create products
these days that are measurably different. But are they really
that much better ? Some...
Try It, But You Won't Get HookedHeroin Busters is one of a few recent Enzo Castellari action flicks put out by Blue Underground...and it's not so hot. It's not bad exactly, it's just kinda boring. I watched it all the way through, and it has it's moments, but for the mostpart it's just kinda flat. Italian action star/prettyboy Fabio Testi is an undercover cop in the middle of a sting in the international heroin underworld. The immortal David Hemmings is his partner, and the only cop who knows that Testi's undercover. The whole film is pretty much a step by step drug dealing sting with no real excitement or drama. Like I said, it's not terrible, but you begin to wonder when something cool's gonna happen. Things do pick up a bit in the last act when Testi's cover's blown and he's on the run from the dealers who want revenge, but by that time it's too little too late. The film ends with probably the most boring plane chase ever put on film. Testi's fun to watch as usual. Hemmings is good, but ultimately his...
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