While this film isn't quite as dreary as FEARLESS FUZZ (which must have spent almost its entire budget coaxing Joan Collins to guest star), CONVOY BUSTERS still feels too sloppy to really compete with the other, much better work Maurizio Merli did for Umberto Lenzi and Marino Girolami. Stelvio Massi's films always felt like cut-rate Umberto Lenzi, though with a much higher emphasis on creative camera angles and slow motion, so with a little Antonio Margheriti and Enzo Castellari mixed in. However his films certainly suffered from lack of money, and this film is no exception.
Maurizio Merli starts the movie on the tail of a ruthless killer and diamond smuggler who frustratingly slips out of his grasp. Oddly enough, the movie completely switches gears and spends its second half in a sleepy seaside community when Merli gets transferred to get away from it all. This sort of thing would never be green-lit today as the nervous studio execs would demand that the villain find his comeuppance or at least have something tie in from the first half later on. No such luck.
The strangeness of this film is really what sets it the most apart from Merli's other more routine late-70's police outings. There's a couple great scenes in there like when Merli (albeit unrealistically) hunts down several crooks with a helicopter armed only with a revolver with what must be "criminal-seeking bullets". Things get muddled when he meets a girl (the stunning Olga Karlatos) and it turns into an awkward romance as everyone (you, me, and both of them) can tell he's way more into his work than her.
Another memorable goofy scene highlights some miscast 30-somethings as teenagers terrorizing a stadium and shooting at the whimpering owner who looks like either a bloated Sean Penn or a late-career Zalman King. Merli shows up and administers more of his productive signature beatings, but to the teens and not the owner.
The main gang at the end really lacks much of a sense of menace, even when they take hostages. This film really could have used better actors as henchmen but unfortunately plays its cards too soon as Nello Pazzafini and Riccardo Petrazzi only get one short scene as a pair of robbers shacked up with a sleepy hippy chick who gets delightfully shot through the wrist. More beatings ensue.
Definitely a hit-and-miss affair. Set your expectations low and you'll have a lot more fun than THE REBEL or FEARLESS FUZZ. The most memorable aspect of the film is the scene where Maurizio Merli fatally shoots some innocent bystander and promptly just forgets about the whole thing.
