Violent Milan

Wahey! It's another Violent (Insert Italian City here) film...which doesn't mean anything.

Claudio Cassanelli is strangely dubbed as an armed robber involved in a payroll robbery that goes badly wrong when someone triggers the alarm. Claudio, his junky mate John Steiner, his other two mates Walter and Triepo end up killing a few folk and end up split up with Walter and Triepo going to ground with the cash while Claudio and Steiner take two hostages and try and escape the city limits.

When Steiner guns down a policeman in cold blood and drives a motorbike face first into a truck, Claudio finds himself alone, without any money, and with the police slowly beginning to twig as to who he actually is. Meanwhile, his two so-called buddies are fixing to keep the cash for themselves, killing the guy who gave them the car for the robbery and his hooker girlfriend...

Initially the film carries on the usual tradition of gun battles, car crashes and shouting, but soon settles in to a laid back, grim character study of Cassanelli as a nasty guy who will do anything to get his money back. It's good that Cassanelli is a strong actor because he carries this film on his shoulders, even though a lot of the film is devoted to the ongoing police investigation (which bogs the film down). There's also the worst romantic sub-plot ever! I mean that as in Claudio doesn't even indulge in pillow talk and basically says the relationship is nothing.

Coming from the guy who made The Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe, this one is a lot less manic and bit hard going in places, but you can't beat Cassanelli, who is the human version of the cartoon dog Droopy. He's dubbed by a guy who sounds like he smokes 100 cigs a day.