Mike on SMACK.
Despite a cracking Goblin contribution, some ambitious locations and the admittedly gritty depiction of heroin abuse and its trade, Enzo G. Castellari‘s The Heroin Busters, held up against his earlier collaboration with Fabio Testi, The Big Racket, proves to be a disappointingly dull affair that, against all odds, fails to truly excite or engage…
The most ridiculous (and ill fated) heroin traffiking sequence ever committed to screen, as Testi attempts to stroll through airport customs with a duffel bag stuffed with skag, is thankfully something of a cunning ruse – he is in fact a deep undercover narc rather than the globe hopping smack peddler that the films international opening credits would seemingly have us believe.
Testi’s wardrobe in The Heroin Busters deserves a very special mention. Kitted out in skinny jeans tucked (Sloane Ranger style) into knee high boots, a pink capped sleeve T-Shirt, a jacket that inexplicably has ”Matt” stencilled onto the back (an undercover decoy, perhaps?) and busy baseball cap, the unshaven Italian action star is as far removed from his typical garb as you could possibly imagine.
Enzo leans on his old ensemble from The Big Racket to deliver the goods. Roberto Dell’Acqua, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Massimo Vanni and Josh Sinclair all get involved and yes (unsurprisingly), Castellari’s daughter is back on the scene too – once again enduring horrible acts at the hand of her papa behind the camera, as she strays too close to drug related peril…
The lukewarm message of ”just say no” takes in a lesbian nudey scene and plenty of over the top Italian drama. The climactic plane chase sounds better than it actually is – lots of boring plane-in-flight sequences that serve very little purpose other than to boast about Testi’s pilot license achievements.
David Hemmings is effective as Testi’s contact, though annoyingly refers to arses and arseholes throughout in the dubbed version and is sadly relegated to bawdily grabbing a woman’s tit when riding pillion with her. Profondo Rosso must have seemed like a lifetime ago… While both actors deserve applause for their individual contributions to Italian genre film from this period, as a pairing,they grate with all the panache of British chalk and Italian cheese.
The Heroin Busters has plenty of trademarked Castellari energy, but like the toe tapping flipside to a hit single, it’s really only ever a B side to the poliziotteschi mix tape…
Check out my review of THE HEROIN BUSTERS Mike, for a completely different take on it. I really like this film for its unashamed exaggeration and absurdity. The only misstep in the comical proceedings is a grimy subplot showing the effects of drug addiction. Fabio has never looked so cool, and boy does he do a lot of running!
Thanks for dropping a comment Shaun. I think I would have enjoyed The Heroin Busters more had I seen it before Il Grande Racket. Testi looks great in this though – that’s a strong look he’s got going on!