Rogue Cops and Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers by Enzo G. Castellari features two solid Italian films released by Arrow Video, and includes great video and audio transfers to go along with a good selection of bonus features.
Rogue Cops and Racketeers:
Two Crime Thrillers by Enzo G. Castellari
— The Big Racket / The Heroin Busters —
(1976/1977)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Crime
Arrow Video| NR – 104 min. / 94 min. – $69.95 | April 19, 2022
Date Published: 04/19/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Arrow Films provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3½/5 |
THE BIG RACKET (1976) Plot Synopsis: Inspector Nico Palmieri (FABIO TESTI) is hot on the heels of a gang of ruthless racketeers hell-bent on extorting local business owners with intimidation and violent reprisals. Injured by the gang in the line of duty, Nico is determined to bring the crooks to justice, but his superiors warn him off the case. Realizing he’s not going to get anywhere within the confines of the law, Nico recruits a crack squad of civilians who have themselves fallen victim to the gang to dole out their own brand of justice, Italian-style Quick Hit Review: The Big Racket has some of the peculiarities of Italian cinema with some odd characters making even odder decisions. But this is no fluff-filled suspense-thriller but has some really dark turns with the sexual assault of a young girl and the torture of another woman. Those elements, even from someone who has seen plenty of Italian crime-dramas took me by surprise. As always, I can’t really tell if the acting is good but Fabio Testi in the lead I suppose had charisma and the action scenes were fairly enjoyable including the finale which provided plenty of entertainment value if also not some amusing kills via paintballs. 3.75/5
THE HEROIN BUSTERS (1977) Plot Synopsis: Rule-flouting cop Fabio (FABIO TESTI) is deep undercover, chasing a globe-trotting ring of drug-smugglers suspected to be operating out of Rome. Working with Mike Hamilton (DAVID HEMMINGS), an Interpol agent with a hair-trigger temper, he sets out to worm his way into the group’s confidence. But can these two rule-bending risk-takers stay one step ahead of the criminals long enough to bring them down from the inside? Quick Hit Review: Plenty more action compared with The Big Racket, The Heroin Busters has its moments and like Racket, perfectly watchable without the more uncomfortable scenes of torture. The highlight this time was David Hemmings who was a lot of fun during his scenes. The action sequences were fairly well done including an aerial plane chase during the finale. 3.5/5 |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5 |
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Each film is housed in an HD keep case (which contains 6 postcard size cards) which is held in a sturdy outer box. Inside is a book with essays. THE BIG RACKET
THE HEROIN BUSTERS
The bonus material for both movies are well rounded with interviews by the director, editors and two actors, all providing their memories of working on these films. It’s nice to see they are mostly lengthy as well with Castellari totaling nearly an hour worth of interview footage between the two. |
VIDEO – 4¾/5 |
| Arrow Video releases The Big Racket and The Heroin Busters onto Blu-ray, both presented in their respective original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio taken from a 2K scan of the 35mm camera negative. I was impressed with each of these films, as colors were fairly vibrant and the natural grain still being retained and no noticeable flaws like aliasing, artifacts or any major dust marks or dirt. Now there was some film damage like string-length that cropped up on the top or bottom of the frame. Otherwise though, this was another top notch transfer from Arrow. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| Both films received Italian and English Mono PCM tracks which were culled and restored from the original optical sound negatives. For the most part these sounded rather good, dialogue, which was recorded in post-production so they have an almost dubbed quality, came across with nice clarity and for a singular track there is some okay depth for the action scenes. |
OVERALL – 4¼/5 |
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Rogue Cops and Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers by Enzo G. Castellari features two solid Italian films released by Arrow Video, and includes great video and audio transfers to go along with a good selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.