7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After criminal gangs wreak havoc in the streets of Italy, a take-no-guff police commissioner forms a highly trained band of motorcycle riding cops to stop them.
Starring: Marcel Bozzuffi, Riccardo Salvino, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Nello Pazzafini, Claudia GiannottiThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
I know the idea of yet another remake in the cinema landscape is enough to trigger a wave of eye-rolls, but if there’s any picture that deserves a second pass at perfection, it’s the 1977 Italian production, “Stunt Squad.” An origin story for a supercop series, the effort has all the ingredients to delight as escapism and chill as a procedural, making it ideal fodder for an excitable helmer to transform the material into a roughhouse actioner that leaves audiences breathless. This could be one of those rare times when a do-over might actually improve on the original.
The VC-1 encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation emerges with the usual RaroVideo troubles, finding filtering and source material issues pulling out fine detail, creating smoothness where real texture should be. Colors are amplified, with deep blues and reds dominating the palette. Skintones are as approachable as the transfer allows. Grain is more noisy than organic, while print damage is detected, along with mild judder. Blacks tend to solidify, blocking up darker costumes and low-lit encounters, whites display faint bloom.
The Italian 2.0 LPCM mix sounds thick but adequate, with a comfortable push of scoring cues, which carry the energy of the picture quite nicely. Violence enjoys emphasis, with snapping guns and crunchy collisions. Dialogue exchanges are dubbed and distanced, but the emotional intention of scenes remains available. Group dynamic hits a few shrills highs, necessitating some volume riding to manage.
Performances are sharp and successfully fuming mad on occasion, and the climax turns out to be the only real note of brutality that lingers after the movie is over, exploring a moment of mob mentality that both terrifies and thrills, conjuring the voyeuristic complexity Paolella has been hunting for all along. "Stunt Squad" certainly isn't dull, but it doesn't reach its potential, getting lost as it searches for a way to justify the rip-roaring entertainment it's trying to deliver.
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