Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Coventry Italian cult/exploitation cinema from the 1970s is definitely my favorite type of film-making, but I just cannot seem to decide whether my number #1 beloved sub genre is the Spaghetti Western, the Giallo or the Poliziotteschi. Recently, and thanks to having seen a couple of brilliant titles like "The Big Racket" and "Revolver", I'm leaning most towards the Poliziotteschi again and evidently my expectations for "Street Law" were also set incredibly high. Of course this has to be a great movie, with a director like Enzo G. Castellari and a cast led by none other than Franco Nero. Due to its vigilante themes and time of release, many ignorant people claim that "Street Law" is nothing but a quick attempt to cash in on the tremendous success of "Death Wish", with Nero copying the famous role played by Charles Bronson, but I swear you this film is much more than an uninspired rip-off. It's an action/thriller classic in its own right with story lines, action sequences and characters drawings that are totally different than anything featuring in "Death Wish", or any other contemporary vigilante-thriller for that matter. During the exhilarating opening sequences, Castellari already shows a lovely montage – guided by adrenalin-pumping music – illustrating that the streets of a nameless big Italian city are infested with violent crime. During broad daylight there are muggings, car and home jacking, robberies, drive-by shootings, nihilistic mafia executions and there are never any police authorities in sight! In this same city, Franco Nero stars as the anonymous lab-worker Carlo Antonelli who's unlucky enough to walk into a bank with his personal savings moments before three savage robbers come storming in. When Carlo too obviously tries to recover some of his own money, the robbers roughly take him hostage and leave him severely beaten up in their getaway car. Frustrated, humiliated and accused by the police of being provocative, Carlo vows to track the criminals himself. This is where the big differences with films like "Death Wish" become unmistakable, because Carlo obviously isn't a forceful fighting machine or strategic genius and spends most of the film's running time either getting physically pulverized or getting busted when trying to infiltrate into the underworld. Come to think of it, this might even be Franco Nero's least heroic role! Carlo's beautiful wife (the yummy Barbara Bach) is worried sick about him and he only starts making some progress when he gets help from small time crook Tommy. "Street Law" is a terrific film, but still plays in a lower league than the absolute most thrilling Poliziotteschi classics like "Almost Human", "Milano Calibro 9", Rome armed to the Teeth" or "Rabid Dogs". There are many fantastic action sequences, most notably the final shootout in the hangar, but I still found this film less sadist and shocking than I secretly hope in this type of cinema… Oh, one more thing: dubbing always matters! This is the second or third time that I watch a film in which Franco Nero's rough and manly Italian voice is dubbed by a rather squeaky and insecure English voice, which gives makes his performance somehow weaker. Still though, a truly recommend Italian 70s cult flick!

Michael_Elliott Street Law (1974) ** (out of 4) Italian crime flick has Franco Nero playing a man who walks into the post office one day and ends up getting kidnapped by the men robbing in. The three bad guys severely beat Nero and although he survives the ordeal his hatred just grows when the police refuse to help him. Soon Nero is entering the underworld to try and locate the men so that he can seek revenge. Considering this was released just three months after Charles Bronson's DEATH WISH, I'm really not sure how much of an influence the American film had on this one but the end result here just didn't work for me. I really love vigilante movies and I had heard so many good things about this one but there was just a few minor problems I had with the picture and one big one that really turned me off. My biggest problem with this film is that the Nero character is just so downright stupid that I really fell off his band wagon and in fact I started to cheer for the bad guys! I mean, really, how many stupid things could a person keep doing without someone finally knocking him off? Obviously the character doesn't know what he's doing but after doing one silly thing after another I finally just gave up. Another minor problem I had with the picture is that at nearly 105-minutes long, there's way too much dry space where nothing is happening. A major editing job probably would have done wonders for the picture. I should add that the English dubbing didn't help matters either but this isn't the fault of the film. I found the performances to be among the good things in the picture. Nero is certainly believable as the simple man and you can also believe him when he's finally had enough. Giancarlo Prete nearly steals the film as the man who is forced to get Nero information and I also enjoyed Barbara Bach in her role as the girlfriend. The only thing that really keeps STREET LAW viewable are some of the hilariously bad moments including the opening credits sequence, which shows various crimes being committed. The highlight of the picture has to be the entire sequence in a junkyard where Nero is forced to outrun a car!

Woodyanders Cagey, hard-working, obstinate no-nonsense scientist Franco Nero gets kidnapped during a brutal bank heist by a trio of vicious, nasty crooks. The hoods severely pummel Nero, take him along for a wild, harrowing car chase, and leave Nero forever scarred psychologically by the distressful experience. When the police prove to be ineffectual, Nero decides to go the Charles Bronson "Death Wish"-like enforce the law on your own self-proclaimed keeper of the peace vigilante route, teaming up with genial, helpful illegal arms dealer Giancarlo Prete in order to exact harsh revenge on the vile, untouchable low-life criminals who regularly get away with preying on decent, law-abiding folks.An unexpectedly potent little crime/action potboiler, "Street Law" manages to be both utterly arresting and extremely hard-hitting thanks to its bang-up execution and accomplished technical polish. Under Italian B-film ace Enzo G. Castellari's typically strong, punchy, expert direction the compelling, convoluted and twist-ridden narrative unfolds in a most suspenseful, exhilarating and wickedly dead-on manner. Moreover, the gritty, smoky, squalid and threatening big city urban cesspool environment seems authentically grim and grimy, the cool, driving, harmonica-tinged rock score really hits the socko sonic spot, the brisk, starkly lit, sinuous cinematography gives the movie an excellent slick look, and the ferocious, rousing, often quite jolting action sequences -- Castellari's use of strenuous, gut-wrenching slow motion is incredibly effective -- deliver one hell of a strong and lingering punch. Better still, Nero contributes his usual top-notch performance, Prete is surprisingly likable as a conscience-plagued miscreant who yearns to go straight, and beauteous brunette Barbara Bach registers well as Nero's concerned, caring girlfriend. Why, "Street Law" even comes complete with a provocative, gruffly unsentimental, yet profound moral: Revenge is anything but sweet -- and it almost always comes with a highly serious and painful price to pay. Resolutely tough-minded and unusually complicated, with a suitably bleak tone and a pungently brooding atmosphere, this coarse, crackling, thoroughly gripping and exciting hard-edged vengeance crime thriller sizes up overall as an absolute powerhouse.

Michael A. Martinez The best part of this film is definitely the scene where a filthy and beaten-up Franco Nero has to outrun a '66 Mustang in a junkyard, complete with a really good long lens slow motion shot of Nero running toward the camera with a car right behind him.The plot details Nero's quest to bring three bank robbers (Romano Puppo, Nazzareno Zamperla, and Massimo Vanni) who took him hostage and beat him up to justice. To do this, he blackmails a local street thug (Giancarlo Prete in a good role) and forces him to show him around the underworld and eventually find them to exact vigilante justice on them. What sets this mundane tale apart are the frequent changes-of-alliance and doublecrosses, as the action sequences are relatively weak (considering it's a Castellari movie). STREET LAW is not really that violent either when compared with most other Italian crime films. (Compare Romano Puppo's final scene here with a similar scene in Lucio Fulci's CONTRABAND.)Guido and Maurizio De Angelis's score is certainly similar to their work for the many Bud Spencer / Terence Hill films (though not under their usual Oliver Onions pseudonym), but to me sounds a lot better. While the songs are weird and use seemingly every possible instrument and sound in the book, the "Good Bye My Friend" song is a great song even though the lyrics in most of it make no sense. The same can be said of "Driving All Around". Nero once again plays the same character he plays in every movie, but his character is not totally developed (though that may have been hurt severely by the confusing re-editing of the US version that I saw) and his relationship with his girlfriend Barbara Bach is barely touched on. While the plot is simple, it often becomes uninteresting, and certainly doesn't have the more epic feeling of Castellari/Nero's previous film High Crime. Castellari's next film (the goofy but surreal CRY ONION) tried to capitalize off this one, with Nero once again up against the same trio of thugs along with another over-the-top De Angelis score, though any similarity with this film ends there.Watch for an amusing cameo by charismatic American actor Mickey Knox (who made a career as a dubbing voice in many Italian movies and Japanese Anime cartoons) as a gangster who runs a gaming parlor.Not a great film, but colorful and different enough to make it entertaining to most casual viewers.