Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Leofwine_draca Another blazing mafia movie from Fernando di Leo, the ace who brought us CALIBRE 9 and MANHUNT, THE BOSS is a cold and violent film that purports to "show it how it is", ie. depict the everyday life of members of a small-town mafia without glossing over any of the hard facts or making it a sentimental family movie. Indeed the characters are unapproachable and unlikable, the film doesn't offer us one sympathetic person in the whole film. Instead we are asked to identify with Henry Silva's stone-faced leading character, a ruthless killer who doesn't think twice of bumping off the father figure who adopted him fifteen years previously for "the family" and who spends his time massacring people or beating women.Silva is great in the lead, by the way. You definitely would not mess with this guy if you saw him in the street. He's one of the hardest characters I've yet to see in a movie. What can you say when the opening set-up shows him offing a bunch of rivals at a porn cinema by using a grenade launcher to literally blow them into bloody ribbons? Di Leo's knack of blending engaging edge-of-your-seat action with gripping plot twists and plentiful betrayals keeps the film full of energy and the body count keeps rising and rising after the opening massacre. I'd say at least three dozen guys get killed during the course of this movie. The film itself is very drab-looking, with lots of dark greys and browns making up the sets and there isn't a lot of happiness in the movie. Instead THE BOSS focuses on themes of loyalty, friendship, loss, and the human determination to survive.Richard Conte takes the role of the aged Don Corasco and is great in the significant role, as you would expect from a pro. There are also standouts from the supporting cast – Gianni Garko's slimy cop is really loathsome for instance, and Antonia Santilli makes an impact as the daughter of the Don, typically getting abused and used by the bad guys (Di Leo must really hate women judging by his movies). There are lots of great turns from stalwart supports like Howard Ross and Andrea Aureli who keep their scenes lively, and maximum amounts of suspense and tension are thrown in at keys points to give the movie a knife-edge atmosphere. The action scenes are dynamic and extremely violent. Cars and buildings explode, there are shoot-outs, flick knives in mouths, loads more hard-hitting footage. These elements make the film great addition to the Italo crime genre.

Woodyanders Rugged and vindictive gang leader Cocchi (surperbly played with live-wire brio by Pier Paolo Caprioli) survives a bombing at a movie theater and vows revenge on both cold, ruthless hit-man Nick Lanzetta (a deliciously vicious and remote portrayal by Henry Silva) and steely, formidable Don Carrasco (a fine performance by Richard Conte). This sets off a chain of violence which threatens to destroy everyone involved in this fierce dispute between two warring rival Mafia factions. Writer/director Fernando Di Leo once again proves that he was one of the most capable and underrated filmmakers to ever work in the Italian crime thriller genre: the hard, gritty and uncompromising tone never gets remotely silly or sappy, the outbursts of raw brutality are truly jarring, the action set pieces are staged with considerable skill and flair (the bombing which opens the picture is especially exciting), the surprise ending is quite powerful, and there's a pleasing amount of tasty sex and yummy female nudity to further spice up the already engrossing proceedings. Moreover, we even get some pointed social criticism about prejudice against non-Sicilians in the Italian mob and how the lack of order and discipline creates chaos within the Mafia. The super acting from the top-rate cast also warrants praise: veteran supporting bad guy thespian Silva excels in a rare substantial lead, Gianni Garko marvelously snivels it up as wormy corrupt cop Commisario Torri, Claudio Nicastro does well as the excitable Don Giuseppe D'Aniello, and the lovely Antonia Santilli steams up the screen with her sizzling turn as D'Aniello's jaded, yet alluring junkie whore daughter Rina. Franco Villa's crisp cinematography gives the film an attractive glossy look. Luis Enriquez Bacalov's groovy, moody, syncopated score totally hits the funky pulsating spot. A bit too talky and a tad sluggish in spots, but overall a most worthy item.

dbborroughs Henry Silva is a hit man who's grenade attack on a boss and his men during a skin flick starts up a mob war that soon has everyone attacking everyone else with the cops sitting in the middle watching as people end up dead around them. Violent and at times unpleasant mob movie shows the mob bosses for what they are, little more than animals wanting only their piece of the pie. It's also a tale where revenge only leads to bigger outrages. This is the sort of okay movie that you end up sticking with because the violence is arresting (the opening grenade attack hooked me) and because the twists and turns are such that you genuinely want to know what is going to happen next because you don't know what is going to happen next other than it won't be any good. Worth a look for those who like gritty Euro-crime films.

The_Void The Boss is the third and final part of Fernando Di Leo's loose trilogy based on organised crime, and it's also the weakest. Milano Calibro 9 and The Italian Connection are without doubt two of the finest examples of this genre, but while this one isn't particularly bad; it's not great either, and despite a number of standout moments; The Boss grinds to a halt on more than one occasion, and I was nowhere near as gripped during this film as I was during the other two parts of this trilogy. The film is more focused on the 'organised crime' angle than the other two films; and The Godfather seems like an obvious influence. The film focuses on a war between two rival mafia families. Things start to get out of control after an attack on the local porn theatre, which leaves a load of gang members dead. Naturally, the wronged gang decides to take revenge for these killings and goes about kidnapping the rival don's daughter Rina Daniello. At the centre of the tale is the Nick Lanzetta, the assassin behind the killings in the theatre.The film gets off to an explosive start with a sequence that sees the central character blow a load of people away with a grenade launcher. This is somewhat misleading; as a film with an opening like this really promises excitement all the way through, but unfortunately things slow down after that, which really annoyed me. The film does feature some other interesting scenes (including a nice death scene that sees someone get a flick knife in the mouth), but The Boss never manages to top its opening scene. A lot of the film is made of talking, and that's not what I tune into this sort of film for; I prefer my Polizi full blooded and full of car chases and gun fights. Like the superior 'Italian Connection', this film stars Henry Silva. The cult actor made a number of these films, and he suits the hit-man role well. Seasoned Italian cult film actor Richard Conte stars alongside Silva and also does well also. I have to say that I was losing interest by the end, but thankfully the film does have just about enough about it to ensure that it's worth seeing for fans of this usually wonderful genre.