ThiefHott Too much of everything

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

JasparLamarCrabb Ezio Castellari's crime thriller hits the ground running & rarely lets up. David Hemmings is an Interpol agent tracking the clandestine activities of a lot of drug pushers, users, and well...just about anyone else in on the drug scene in Rome circa 1977. It's ridiculous, hopelessly convoluted but always entertaining. Castellari is a master at this type of film and he's in top form. Hemmings is a tad too tightly wound but he has great chemistry with Fabio Testi, ideally cast as a deep undercover cop. The sometimes intrusive pop-synth score by frequent Argento collaborator Goblin could have been toned down but it's a minor flaw in this classic. Sherry Buchanan plays a junkie. The dynamite cinematography is by Giovanni Bergamini.

Witchfinder General 666 Drug trafficking is not my favorite theme in Italian Crime flicks (I personally prefer Unorthodox Cops vs. Sadistic killers such as in Lenzi's "Almost Human", or hard-boiled Mafia stories such as in Fernando Di Leo's Milieu trilogy). Yet I must say that "La Via Della Droga" (aka. "The Heroin Busters" of 1977 is a more than worthwhile Poliziottesco that no genre-lover should consider missing. The multi-talented Exploitation mastermind Enzo G. Castellari in the director's chair, a cast including Fabio Testi and David Hemmings, loads of violent shootouts and a score by Goblin - what else could a fan of Italian genre cinema ask for? Fabio Testi plays drug smuggler Fabio who is arrested when trying to get a considerable amount of heroin into Rome. After escaping from jail and obtaining the trust of a local drug-lord (Joshua Sinclair), Fabio turns out to be in fact an undercover cop, who works together with international drug squad officer Mike Hamilton (David Hemmings). Determined to rid Rome of Heroin, Fabio and Mike are also willing to use unorthodox methods... While "La Via Della Droga" is certainly no Poliziotteschi highlight en par with "Almost Human" or "Rome Armed To The Teeth", this is a film that should not be missed by a genre fan. Whereas the storyline is not the best ever, the film is full of violent shootouts, car-chases, occasional sleaze and stylish brutality. I've personally been a great fan of Enzo G. Castellari for years, sadly enough I still haven't seen his supposedly best Poliziotteschi, "La Polizia Incrimina La Legge Assolve" (aka. "High Crime", 1973), and "Il Cittadino Si Ribella" ("Street Law"/"The Citizen Rebels", 1974). "La Via Della Droga", however, is more than a bit entertaining, and if the two aforementioned films are even better I can't wait to see them. I am also a great fan of both leading men, both of whom have starred in personal Giallo-favorites of mine (David Hemmings in Dario Argento's "Profondo Rosso", Fabio Testi in Massimo Dallamano's "What Have You Done To Solange"), and both are once again excellent in their roles. Especially Testi does a great job as the hero here, while Hemmings' role could have been bigger. Joshua Sinclair ("Keoma") also makes a good villain. My only real complaint is that I would have wished for David Hemmings to have more screen time. The score by Progressive Rock band Goblin is great as always, even though it comes nowhere near the brilliance of the scores they did for Dario Argento's masterpieces. All in all, "La Via Della Droga" is a more than recommendable Poliziottesco that my fellow fans of Italian Crime cinema should enjoy.

FilmTx This is just a fun movie. The acting is campy at parts but the action sequences are better than expected. We had a lot of fun watching this. There's a pointless out of the blue lesbian scene and "drug addict" acting of the caliber of an after school commercial.I know it sounds like I'm taking digs at the film, but I'm not. Watch the trailer on the Blue Underground site... it might be on IMDb too... but the trailer was delicious enough to get me to rent it (just as the trailer for Street Law did that title). David Hemmings is great.Basically... "fun" is the key point of this review. Fun.8 out of 10

django-1 When I first saw this film many years ago, I was put off by its slow and fragmented first ten minutes, featuring scenes of (gratuitous!) drug use in various parts of the world. Also, I had just seen David Hemmings' other Italian crime film from this year, SWINDLE with Tomas Milian (directed by Bruno Corbucci), which was INCREDIBLE, and this did not seem as good. However, once the film kicks into gear after fifteen minutes or so, it is quite good and features some incredible stunt work, imaginative action sequences, exciting guitar-driven music from Goblin (not as repetitive as some of their work), a wonderful over-the-top performance by David Hemmings as an interpol narcotics investigator, and a cool, smoldering performance by Fabio Testi as an undercover cop out to bust the international drug trade. As a later 70s product, this film features unnecessary closeup shots of drug use and some gratuitous nudity (a lesbian scene presented as a FANTASY of a minor character!), but there's not enough of either to derail what becomes a nail-biting action film. The final fifteen to twenty minutes of HEROIN BUSTERS are incredible--the motorcycle chase in the subway, which leads into an outrageous airplane chase--some of the most interesting and daredevil action-film stunt-work I've seen in a while. The film also has nice bursts of humor here and there (such as when Hemmings, chasing a crook, gets a ride from a young lady on a motorcycle and has to grab on to her breast to hold on!) and was quite satisfying on all levels. It does start slow, however, so don't give up on it (or fast forward through some of the initial scenes). What a "golden age" of Italian crime films the 1970's was--even a standard genre entry turns out to be a gem, the likes of which would NEVER be made today.