It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A heroin shipment between Italy and New York goes missing and a small time pimp, Luca Canali (Mario Ardof), is wrongly blamed (actually, framed is probably more accurate). The New York boss sends two hit men to Milan take out Luca. Luca's also got the Milan boss and his goons breathing down his neck. But Luca's not going to go down without fight.What a fantastic movie! The Italian Connection (or Manhunt or any of the other names this movie has been released under) is the second film in director Fernando Di Leo's "milieu trilogy". While I'm not sure I enjoyed The Italian Connection quite as much as Caliber 9 (I still haven't seen The Boss), they're both excellent, exciting, gritty movies. I think my preference for Caliber 9 is related to the plot twists near the end. Otherwise, it's hard to choose. I'm a relative newbie as far as Di Leo goes, but he's quickly becoming one of my favorites. Di Leo had the ability to film action as well as any director I've run across. Luca's chase scene across Milan is just brilliant. De Leo's film is often bloody and brutal, but always entertaining. I hate to spoil anything, so I'll just say that there is one death scene (and you'll know it when you see it) that Di Leo filmed and set-up in such a way that it's heartbreaking. The cinematography is stunning. The gritty streets and alleyways of Milan are photographed like works of art. And the film's pacing is excellent. There's not a dull moment in the entire runtime. In fact, I would use the word "frantic" to describe much of the movie – particularly the chase. The acting in The Italian Connection is spectacular. First, Mario Ardof is wonderful as Luca. I really can't say enough positives about him. The fact that he (and Di Leo) was able to take a low- life, scummy, greasy pimp like Luca and turn him into a sympathetic hero is nothing short of remarkable. It's a truly brilliant piece of acting. In addition to Ardof, the cast includes Henry Silva and Woody Storde as the ruthless New York hit men, Adolfo Celi as the Milan boss, Luciana Paluzzi of Thunderball fame, and Sylva Koscina as Luca's estranged wife. It's quite a strong, talented cast for a movie of this type. I could go on and on praising The Italian Connection, but I'll end it here. Even though I said I preferred Caliber 9, I'm rating The Italian Connection the same 9/10. It's that good.

The second film in Fernando Di Leo's 'Milieu' trilogy, "La Mala Ordina" aka. "Manhunt" of 1972 is, in my opinion just not quite as brilliant as the foregoing masterpiece "Milano Calibro 9" (also 1972) and its brilliant successor "Il Boss" (1973), and yet this is an excellent and breathtaking crime epic that no lover of Italian genre-cinema could possibly afford to miss. The tough-minded and violent film, which has been released under many aka. titles such as "Hit Men", "Hired To Kill", "The Italian Connection" or even the absolutely inappropriate title "Black Kingpin", is breathtaking from the beginning to the end and profits from a brilliant cast. The plot revolves around Luca Canali (Mario Adorf), a small-time pimp, who suddenly has to fear for his life when he is framed for the disappearance of a shipment of heroin. Canali, who has no clue who the real thieves are, is soon mercilessly hunted by both the local mafia and two contract killers sent by the American mob (Henry Silva and Woody Strode)...The role of Luca Canali fits Mario Adorf perfectly. I'm a fan of Adorf in general, he was always best in roles of the kind, and he delivers an excellent performance here. Henry Silva (one of my favorite actors) and Woody Strode (another great actor) are easily equally brilliant as the two American hit men, who are ultra-tough, but also responsible for the humorous scenes in the film, as Silva is constantly hitting on everything female while Strode is dead-serious and hardly says a word. The rest of the performances are also good, Adolfo Celi, who is probably best known for playing James Bond villain Mr. Largo in "Fireball" plays the Milan mafia don, and the female cast is entirely nice to look at. The story is not quite as convoluted as it was the case in "Milano Calibro 9", but "Manhunt" is still a tantalizing and uncompromising from the beginning to the end, and filled with non-stop action and brutal violence. The score is also great, and the camera-work ingenious. To me personally, "Manhunt" is not quite as brilliant as "Milano Calibro 9" and "Il Boss". These two films, however, are in my opinion easily two of the greatest gangster films ever brought to screen, and even though slightly inferior, "Manhunt" is still an awesome piece of crime cinema that is excellent in all aspects and easily surpasses most famed American gangster-classics. Excellent film-making, an absolute must-see for every fan of Italian genre cinema.

When a shipment of heroin disappears enroute from Milan to New York a small time pimp named Luca Canali(excellent Mario Adorf)is fingered by the mafia for execution.There is only one problem...he is the wrong man!Unable to prove his innocence he is caught in a life and death struggle with the New York boss' hit men(Henry Silva and Woody Strode)."Hit Men"/"La Mala Ordina" is a typical Italian crime/drama with plenty of violence and sleaze.The acting is pretty good,the action almost never lets up and the ending is very exciting.Highly recommended if you are a fan of Italian cult cinema.

Now released under the absurdly named Mack Video as the absurdly named BLACK KINGPIN, LA MALA ORDINA, once known as MANHUNT, shows the Italian seventies policier director Fernando DiLeo in peak form. The Italian cops-mob-and-corruption movies often had a neorealist tincture, not far from such British cousins as GET CARTER or THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. (The best in this vein is the dark, harrowing VIOLENT NAPLES.) But some of them were as ripe and over-the-top as concurrent works of Italian horror; and this saga of a small-town pimp pursued, God knows why, by Mr. Big and two Vincent-and-Jules-looking U.S.-made button men, looks like the product of some torrid motel-room coitus between Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. The faces are sweaty, the beatings (to evoke Roger Ebert's memorable phrase) suggest the sound of ping-pong paddles smacking naugahyde sofas--the only thing that's missing is the groan of an Ennio Morricone score. An evening of Shane Black quips it ain't, but ninety minutes of top-shelf hardboiled groove it is.