After serving 12 years in prison for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain(John Cassaveties) finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's(Peter Falk) rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed & abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco & New York. Not blood nor lust, nor wedding vow can come between McCain & his money....or his machine gun.
Ok where to start.......flat out fatastic is as good as any. I'm not the worlds biggest ganster movie fan, hated The Godfather movies, enjoyed Goodfellas, thought The Untouchables to be merrly OK & I'm also not a huge fan of non exploitation Italian cinema like all the Poliziotteschi (Euro Crime) films but ladies & gentlemen this film has me gob smacked. John Cassaveties not only throws himself into this role with such a manical glee, he does so while keeping the camp factor you might expect, non exsistent. It no secrete that the man didn't much like his acting roles & prefered to be behind the camera but he even gave this movie it's due. All people thinking Peter Falk as Columbo should forget that role all together cause he gives what I might call a career's best here. It's a shame that Falk & Cassaveties don't share a singal sceen together in this film as you could be looking at a fore father to the now classic DeNiro/Pacino pairing in HEAT. Britt Ekland has always been a stunning looker but her acting has very hit & miss, the later being the most dominate. But here you get the feeling that Cassaveties, being a known actor's director, brought out what might be considered her best performance. Cassaveties real life wife, Gena Rowlands makes a small but impactfull performance that most other actresses would probibly pass off as fluff. The rest of the cast made up of Italian exploitation/polizotteschi regulars do very admirable jobs here.
While I wouldn't go on record as saying the action is non stop, it does deliver what has come to be expected from films of it's ilk, if not slightly better. The Ennio Morricone score is amoung his best, but that is like saying he's done a terrible one. Track this film down & give'r a spin, you won't be sorry.
9/10
Here's the Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1ZemdRJ-8
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