Strange Shadows in an Empty Room

Until rugged cop Stuart Whitman makes full use of his Dirty Harry tool, you've got to wait until the very end of the movie. Along the way, you get your money's worth – a lineup of veteran Hollywood actors having fun poliziottesco style, a sex shop scene high on the 70s sleaze-o- meter, karate killer transvestites, Mia Farrow's sister as a blind girl, the stunning beauty of H'wood actress Gayle Hunnicutt, the admirable tits of Québécois Adjani lookalike Carole Laure, the creative use of a curling iron, plus a quite spectacular car chase in the streets of Montreal, expertly executed by legendary stunt coordinator Rémy Julienne (The Italian Job, six Bond movies, a dozen Belmondo action flicks). Of course Blazing Magnum is just a ripoff, but a highly entertaining one, in its molto-trasho-appeal unquestionably superior to each and every 70s Clint Eastwood vigilante vehicle. Gritty six stars, the seventh being for Armando Trovaioli's groovster soundtrack: That ain't Montreal, it's Funkytown.