Customer Reviews

The Heroin Busters

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HEROIN BUSTERS, or translated literally from the Italian, "The
Drug Avenue" (la Via della Droga), is a fascinating,
action-packed movie, pulling all the stops for thrills and
action, not excluding plenty of gun-shooting, in a race between
the criminal element and law enforcement. There's motorcycle,
airplane and car chases around Italy on land, foot and air.

The action is dubbed in English, in an extremely fluent,
understandable manner.

The success of this movie, is that it is outstanding in its
quality considering the "technology" that was at the director's
disposal at the time. Obviously, the Hollywood studios, with
100's of millions of USD greater budgets, and with technology 20
years newer than at the time the film was made, create products
these days that are measurably different. But are they really
that much better ? Some things never change, such as the human
species, emotion, and the cultural, economic and social aspects
of a country, whether it by Italy, USA, etc.

Having been filmed in Europe, in 1977, anyone with memories of
hat era, will judge as occasionally comical the immediately
recognizable FIAT vehicle models of the time, and others (such
as Citroen 2 Horse Power, FIAT, small compact Fords, etc.), the
presentation of outdoor and indoor cafes, pinball machines,
cobble stone roads, and overall landscape scenes from the
Italian countryside, that are almost identical to those found in
Spain, and Portugal.

The soundtrack is extremely well chosen, as well, with a few
repetitive riffs, reminiscent of the 70's heavy metal scene,
such as Yngwie Malmsteen's style or Black Sabbath, or Jean Luc
Ponty's more fusion jazz elements.

The opener is somewhat provocative to perhaps those residing
outside the major agglomerations, by depicting the red light
district major metropolises around the world, such as those of
Tokyo, Amsterdam, Thailand or Hong Kong, New York, London, and
from there, progresses to show a certain marginal element of
society. These are outside of the mainstream, consuming and
trafficking at times heroin, visibly. The marketing aspect is
also touched upon, by a character admitting that free drugs were
supplied to school kids to get them hooked from an early age
into the substances, not unlike major American and multinational
corporations give away free comic books, DVD's, breakfast cereal
with other propaganda, to impart in their minds a brand loyalty
that will pay off bigtime when the kids become breadwinners and
adults.

Considering the outstanding results the director obtained with
the budget and technology available in 1977, the cast can be
proud of the results, as it's cool enough for the DVD to be
pulled out a few times again, considering the extremely sharp
digital filming, stimulating story. As a bonus, there's a
director commentary in the extras.

Heroin Busters is one of a few recent Enzo Castellari action flicks put out by Blue Underground...and it's not so hot. It's not bad exactly, it's just kinda boring. I watched it all the way through, and it has it's moments, but for the mostpart it's just kinda flat. Italian action star/prettyboy Fabio Testi is an undercover cop in the middle of a sting in the international heroin underworld. The immortal David Hemmings is his partner, and the only cop who knows that Testi's undercover. The whole film is pretty much a step by step drug dealing sting with no real excitement or drama. Like I said, it's not terrible, but you begin to wonder when something cool's gonna happen. Things do pick up a bit in the last act when Testi's cover's blown and he's on the run from the dealers who want revenge, but by that time it's too little too late. The film ends with probably the most boring plane chase ever put on film. Testi's fun to watch as usual. Hemmings is good, but ultimately his role is kinda...not pointless exactly, but he just doesn't really have much to do. Castellari has definitely made better. Street Law is a good example.

Undercover narc and terminal fashion victim Fabio Testi takes on dope peddlers with the help of a surprisingly spry David Hemmings in this trashy, but kind of fun, outing. Stick around for the final half hour, where seemingly every mode of transportation available to the filmmakers is employed in a wild chase. Crack open a Peroni and goof on the poorly dubbed rest of it.