Simply Perfect

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A typically intense police thriller from gore meister Lucio Fulci which has recently enjoyed its first uncut UK release thanks to the guys at Shameless. All of the cheesy gore effects are now present and correct allowing British viewers to see the movie as it was intended. As for the film itself, we're in familiar territory here with a good-hearted petty criminal caught up in a world of Mafia killers, vengeful assassins, and the like. A big influence is inevitably THE GODFATHER although it's definitely a Fulci film in look and style.The first third of the film is a little slow as it sets up the plot. I've always found Fabio Testi a second-tier actor and it's hard to really like him here as he does dither around a lot. However, things pick up with the first fight scene at the sulphur pits and remain above average from there. THE SMUGGLER features more death and destruction than in a dozen American crime films put together. Fulci, best known for his gory horror films like ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, inserts plenty of his trademark excessive violence into his film with people being shot and hit and spraying blood all over the place.Things really get going with a choppily-edited series of murders, where we get to see people machine gunned for what seems like an endless time - they even turn around halfway through in order to get the full treatment. An assassin goes on a rampage of murder for about twenty minutes of screen time and the level of on screen violence is just outrageous. However, the worst violence is meted out to female characters, with a horrendous rape scene and a bit involving a Bunsen burner that'll have your eyes watering. Then there's a predictable but nonetheless exciting shootout at the end, with loads of people biting the bullet, as it were.

***SPOILERS**** Extremely brutal and violent crime Mafia movie taking place in Naples Italy involving a gang of illegal cigarettes traffickers with members of the French Mafia who are trying to take over their speed boat smuggling operation. The French Mafia kingpin Il Marsigliese or Marciasia for short played by "French Connection" hit man Marcel Bozzuffi plans to replace the smokes or cigarettes with heroin being shipped in that's being processes in Germany and addict the entire population of the city of Naples. It's the Di Angelo brothers Luca & Mickey who run the cigarette smuggling operation who refuse to provide their services as well as speed boats to Il Marsigliese' goons that have them targeted from elimination by him.Il Marsigliese using fellow cigarette smuggler the pansy like and playboy Perlante to set up Luca Di Angelo, who's brother Sammy was murdered by his goons, as well as his fellow cigarette smugglers, that are gathered at his mansion, for a major hit Il Marsigliese who's hiding in a closet gives himself away with the smell of the very pungent after shave he's wearing. That ends up giving Luca a chance to escape the carnage before the shooting starts. It's when Il Marsigliese' goons kidnap Luca's wife Adele and hold her as a hostage, while brutally beating and raping her, that he gets the help of the local Mafia Dons who are still left alive, after all the carnage, who set up a trap for Il Marsigliese' men with the brave Luca using himself as bait.***SPOILERS*** Far more violent and bloody then all the three "Godfather" movies put together "Contraband" never lets up in the action and some of it is way over the top. Especially when it comes to the women in the film who in once case has her face burned off with a blow torch courtesy of the deranged sadist Il Marsigliese and another Luca's wife Adele getting viciously worked over by him as well as raped by his #1 henchman Nello. That with Luca being forced to listen in on all this while on the other end of the telephone line. Luca with the help of the Naple Mafia Dons does get his revenge by wiping out Il Marsigliese' goons, both French & Italian,in a mob style like ambush. And finally with Luca chasing him down to a waterfront garbage dump and blasting him and leaving Il Marsiqiese there to be taken or hauled away by the Naples sanitation department together with the morning trash.

With having become very keen on the Italian Giallo films,I felt that it was time that I started to explore the other big genre in Italian cinema at the time:Italian Crime films.For my first dip into these (very bloody) new waters,I decided to try a film by a Giallo director that a friend has been talking to me about for a while called Lucio Fulci.After having seen the film,I feel that whilst it is a bit muddled,it is still a hugely enjoyable crime film,with a great amount of real gritty gore.The plot: When a group of local gangsters go to collect there latest supply of cigarettes (which are said to have a street value of up to two million),they are left in shock when the police suddenly come out,revealing that some one had tip them off about the pick-up.Realiseing that the police are closing in,the smugglers quickly set up a "fake" explosion,which gives them just enough time to get away from the police.Sadly when they arrive back,one of the main gangsters in the smuggling operation (Mickey Di Angelo) gets caught in a police set-up,which leads to the cops shooting him,until he is completely dead.With his heart filled with anger over the killing of his brother,Luca Di Angelo decides to go against some of the wishes from the other members of the gang,and to instead search round to try to find out who set up his brothers slaying.As he searches the underground,Luca discoverers that a new group of gangsters have appeared,who are wanting to destroy all of the main Mafia gangs who, sell "Kiddie" contraband (such as cigarettes) and to instead get the gangs old customers hooked onto their new hard drugs,such as Heroin and Cocaine.Feeling that he desperately needs support in his plan to destroy the new gang,Luca decides to ask a group of semi-retired "old hands" to help him out with his plans.Although Di Angelo does not realise that the new gang has some very sadistic plans,for Luca and his wife..View on the film:During my viewing of the film,I have to say the I felt that the screenplay by Ettore Sanzo and Gianni De Chiara sadly made the films plot slightly muddled by not making most of the members of the two main gangs that distinctive from each other,with most of them acting in a very cocky,confident manner (although the new gang are a lot more aggressive than the old one)Thankfully the film is helped by brilliant directing from Lucio Fulci,who makes the stunning shoot-outs in the film POP,with his terrific ultra-violence.Along with the very violent scenes,Fulci is also able to build a good amount of tension in the film,with each of the assassinations of the mobsters filmed in a very distinctive way.Lucio also turns the parts of the story that are to do with Luca hunting for the people that set his brother up,into a gripping revenge plot,that is matched by very good performances from Fabio Testi and Marcel Bozzufi.

The legendary and beloved (to some) Italian demigod Lucio Fulci usually was one of the first directors to quickly cash in on temporarily popular trends in cinema but, for some reason, it took him until the early 80's to participate in the giant success of explicitly violent and relentless crime-thrillers. Fellow director-friends like Umberto Lenzi ("Almost Human"), Ruggero Deodato ("Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man"), Sergio Martino ("Violent Professionals") and Enzo Castellari ("Street Law") had been making loads of money with their outrageous cop-thrillers since the early 70's already, but Fulci didn't benefice from the profitable sub genre until the release of "Contraband". Arguably the best years of the trend were already over when Fulci came along or maybe the script just isn't strong enough, but "Contraband" is one of the director's most uneven accomplishments; do I even daresay a minor disappointment. Luca Di Angelo has a loving wife and son, and along with his brother Mickey he's the most successful cigarette-smuggler in the whole of Naples. The two brothers live in perfect harmony and understanding with the other eminent mafia clans in town and not even the police bothers them too much. When first his brother Mickey, and subsequently all the other befriended mafia leaders are barbarically slaughtered, Luca swears to avenge them. He quickly discovers the French immigrant smuggler "Il Marsigliesi" is responsible for the murders, as he intends to forcefully take over the entire smuggling business in Naples. The story can be summarized really quickly, and yet usually the story lines of these euro-crime films are extremely convoluted and full of far-fetched twists. Fulci's script is rather rudimentary, with either no red herring or very predictable ones and no sudden surprises or genuine shock-revelations. But there's some good news as well! Whatever "Contraband" lacks in originality, Fulci compensates in excessive amounts of outrageous violence and totally gratuitous gore! These criminals don't just shoot each other with one bullet, no, they keep firing until either the intestines fall out, or the faces are transformed into nasty piles of rotten meat-leftovers. The methods of torturing used by the malevolent French gangsters include horrible face-burnings and sadistic anal rapes. It actually looks like Lucio was once again more interested in making another gross horror movie, and who the hell are we to complain about that? The acting performances are all below average, even crime/giallo regular Fabio Testi is out of shape, and even the use of music and photography aren't at all spectacular. Recommended to trained fans of Italian crime thrillers and Lucio Fulci, newcomers to either of them are advised to postpone their viewing of "Contraband" until you've seen some of the aforementioned titles.