Contraband

Although no highlight of the Italian Crime genre, Lucio Fulci's "Luca Il Contrabbandiere" aka "Contraband" is a rough, tough-minded and ultra-violent Gangster flick that certainly delivers, especially for a Fulci fan. Lucio Fulci is widely renowned as the 'Godfather Of Gore', and "Contraband" is a movie that is certainly not going to deprive him of this well-deserved reputation. Although the plot may not be as original as it was the case with many other of the (generally violent) Italian Crime Thrillers of the 70s and early 80s, "Contraband" scores in means of roughness, intransigence and gruesome, gory violence.

Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) and many of his friends make a living as cigarette smugglers in Naples. After their refusal to deal with drugs instead of cigarettes, ruthless drug dealers, amongst them a sadistic gangster from Marseille start to target the cigarette smugglers' families. Luca, however, is not the kind of man who gives in to threats...

Fabio Testi, who had already worked with Lucio Fulci in "Four Of The Apocalypse" in 1975 (aside Tomas Milian and Lynne Frederick), delivers a good leading performance as Luca, and Marcel Bozzuffi is wonderfully evil in his role of the villain. I also found several of the supporting actors, such as Guido Alberti (who only has a very small role) very good. Some other supporting cast members deliver rather bad performances. The violence is pretty brutal and includes several very nasty scenes of torture and sexual violence. There are some scenes that don't really fit in, such as some cheesy looking and kitschy slow-mo sequences of horses at a racecourse, and the music is sometimes out of place, but all in all, the movie's qualities come up for its flaws. "Contraband" is certainly no highlight of Italian crime cinema, but a brutal and uncompromising flick that highly entertains. Fans of Lucio Fulci and Crime thrillers of the rough kind should be pleased.

Nasty French drug dealer, the Marsigliese (Marcel Bozzuffi), is trying to take control of the crime scene in Naples; unable to convince the Neapolitan 'capo's (Mafia crime bosses) to deal in his narcotics (they prefer to smuggle harmless cigarettes instead), he has them bumped off one by one.

Eventually, only family guy smuggler Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) stands between the Marsigliese and his total domination of the Naples underworld. But Luca's wife is kidnapped by the megalomaniacal mobster, and it looks as though all is lost—until help arrives in the form of several retired Mafia leaders who do not wish to see the Marsigliese succeed.

Taking a break from the horror scene for which he is better known, director Lucio Fulci has a go at a different genre, but still manages to gross out the audience with the high level of violence and gore he delivers. In order to make up for what is a pretty routine tale, he throws in loads of bloody bullet hits, mutilation, a smidgen of rape, and other assorted graphic nastiness. And when he's not trying to turn your stomach with blowtorches to the face, bullets through the throat or shotgun blasts to the abdomen, he chucks in some gratuitous nudity for good measure.

It is this sleaziness that makes Contraband watchable despite its mundane story, and even more enjoyable than quite a few of his horror films. 6.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 7 for IMDb).

On a blood and guts level, Fucli's "Contraband" fires up. The squib hits are extreme, giant chunks of flesh are shot out of necks, bad guys die in glorious slomo, and one woman has has face melted for attempting to sell a drug dealer cut coke.

On another level, the film is ponderous, the plot is predictable, and the performances are anemic. Fabio Testi, who was solid in "Revolver", plays a very weak character here and I didn't buy his campaign to wage revenge one little bit.

The action has a muscular quality to it and Fulci makes the most of his access to half a dozen boats. A funeral on the boats is a poetic touch, too. The film is not a bad one, but it misses being great because the script is feeble. You can spot the bad guy a mile off and the dubbing, as usual, is terrible.

The Fabio Frizzi score is memorable but used inappropriately and too often.

One of the best stunt sequences involves an assassinated man rolling down an embankment. There is a worthwhile killing at a racetrack involving a gun shoved a throat.

"Contraband" is a fast-forward job for viewers, and on that level, it offers some satisfaction.

Here's another one outside the horror genre for director Lucio Fulci. He crafts a brutally biting, if disjointed Italian crime melodrama that serves to make you squirm in it gratuitous acts of extremely depraved violence and sleaziness. Fulci definitely left his calling card on this one, with many unforgettably unflinching nasty moments (like an uncomfortable face-melting scene). The superfluous gore and mean-spirited nature is great, but a lack of any real tension-building does hurt it. The twisty story is frank and unspectacular even with its shifty chain of bleak events and the script is weakly penned (the unsuitable humour when included falling flat), but being broken up by its impulsively vivid action stunts (nice use of slow-motion too) and gorgeous Naples' backdrop, leaves quite a hypnotic imprint. Sergio Salvati's brashly sharp and tight camera-work, interlocks with Fulci's kinetic visual bursts and rounding it off nicely is composer Fabio Frizzi's ever-changing, saucy music score that doesn't lye down. Performances are workably tailored. There's a humanely chiselled and honest performance by Fabio Testi. Marcel Bozuffi makes for a great smarmy, calculating French Mafia Don trying to take over Testi's character's turf. Ivana Monti, Ferdinand Murolo, Saverio Marconi and Guido Alberti provide able support. Quite an edgy, blunt and vicious crime joint that basically gets it kicks off its effectively rousing, if scandalous violence than anything more.

(aka: CONTRABAND)

Normally I don't comment on non-horror or mondo films but since Fulci directed it, and since there's enough gore splatter in here to finance a small horror film, I'm gonna put my two cents in.

Fabio Testi plays a Neapolitan cigarette smuggler who's territory is being muscled in on by the Margliese (Marcel Bozzuffi) who wants a clear way to smuggle heroin into Italy using Naples as an entry point.

One by one, Testi's comrades are being killed off in many different gruesome ways, including the backs of heads being blown off, a rotting cadaver thrown through a window, blood bags exploding in stomachs with intestines flying out, and a pretty female drug courier getting half her face burned off by one of the Margilese's henchman.

This has to be one of the goriest crime thrillers I have seen so far. Fulci pulls no stops here and the bad guys are truly gonna get what they deserve. The ending shootout in the street between the Margilese's men and the retired Camorra bosses is classic Fulci.

The Blue Underground DVD uses an excellent widescreen print that is only marred in a couple of places by bad splicing. The only extras that come with it are a couple of bios (Fulci and Testi) and an American trailer.

If you want to see violent crime thriller that doesn't pull any stops like the American ones do, then go see this one!

Recommended! 7 out of 10