VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Red-Barracuda Violent City is an Italian crime film starring Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas. It was directed by Sergio Sollima who made the notable spaghetti western, The Big Gundown. It's about a hit-man from New Orleans who is framed for a crime by a Mafia boss who has also stolen his girlfriend.This is a pretty middling poliziotteschi with some good moments. It begins very well indeed though, with an energetic Ennio Morricone theme playing over stylish credits, followed immediately with a very dramatic car chase topped off with a by bloody gun battle. There's almost no dialogue at all for the opening ten minutes that encompasses this action – it's all very cinematic and exciting. It would only be fair to say that this section is the best part of the movie as a whole. Once the narrative kicks in, it gets a little melodramatic with a plot-line that is quite messily told and not especially inspired. Bronson is solid enough in the lead role – he certainly looks the part. Savalas is very good as the crime boss and his screen charisma certainly counts for quite a lot, it's a pity he didn't have a more expansive role. The overall dynamics between all the characters isn't as interesting as it might have been though, meaning the story is not always as engaging as it could be.There is a limited supply of action scenes but they are sometimes quite memorable, such as the racing car smashing through a brick wall. While the lift scene at the end was very well staged with dramatic use of sound - or lack of it rather. Another moment that had me more baffled was the whole sequence involving the large spider in the jail cell; it was played out in a decidedly surreal manner that felt like was from another movie entirely, it seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever and felt suspiciously like Sollima had got hold of the – extremely creepy – mechanical spider thing and just wanted to use it in his film, so wrote it in utterly randomly! All-in-all, one for fans of Italian crime flicks, although it's certainly not one of the best examples of this genre. There is, however, some well shot action, a couple of B-movie legends and a muscular Morricone soundtrack – so there is definitely enough reasons to check it out if you like this kind of stuff.

Jacob I have to say that even my being a Charles Bronson fan didn't help me watching this movie. The beginning is not bad and much promising with a nice car chase scene. But that's all the good you'll see because then it starts getting weaker and weaker and weaker. The problem of this movie is that the plot is very little, uninteresting and has no integrity. It's just a sequence of events. I constantly had the feeling there was no firm hand making this movie and all the actors were just wasted. They couldn't even figure out to the very end of the movie in what direction it should be going. So, as you can probably guess the writing in whole was really bad to say the least. Although there were some good lines delivered by Telly Savalas and Charles Bronson, nothing redeems this movie to me. Speaking of the absence of definiteness, here's an example: you see Telly's thugs at least in 2 or 3 scenes, that is they did exist, but it turns out so easy for Bronson's character to just step into Telly's house and kill him. So what was the purpose of those guys? That's what I'm saying. There's no outcome to anything in this movie, no culmination, in other words everything turns out in the worst way one might expect. A lifeless and empty movie shot in a very unorganized way. I truly hope this review will prevent other people from being disappointed the way I saw. Just avoid it.

sc8031 Man, Charles Bronson was such a weirdo. His on-screen presence was so cold, shady and unlikable, but the bad guys were even worse. So the viewer is always left to reluctantly root for Charlie -- by default. This one is no different (of course, why should it be otherwise?). "Violent City" starts out with some badass car chase and action sequences. The driving in this movie (sans power-steering!) is really legit. But the second half of the movie just drags.I thought the plot was okay: the idea of this sexy girl double-crossing the main character, using her feminine wiles to survive in an underworld of sleazy, dangerous mobsters and killers. She's blameless but ultimately as guilty as the rest of them! There are some okay plot twists that come along, and Bronson's crazed "tragic love" seems reasonable: there aren't that many hot babes that will fall in love with a contract killer (unless I'm mistaken). The movie is pretty violent and sexually explicit, though. The sexual themed moments are either cheesy or rough, and the (surprisingly) monotonous score by Morricone makes this a total '70s gangster exploitation film.Unfortunately the editing is a little choppy, some plot elements just are not explained very well (such as what happens in prison near the beginning of the film) and the American version is overly censored. I should point out that this film does not have Italian in the American script, contrary to what some other reviewers have mentioned. It was dubbed, both in Italian and in English, and the non-American releases have segments in Italian. The version I watched was a non-American version, so the parts that had been cut out from the American version were in Italian. The sudden transitions into Italian were pretty amusing.It was entertaining, but not that memorable. The car chases and the sniper scenes are pretty hot, though.4.5

The_Void I've been watching a lot of these Italian cop flicks recently, but unfortunately; Violent City isn't one of the best. The film was released before Dirty Harry (unlike the rest of the genre), so it does deserve some credit for originality. That's not to say it's bad by any means, but this Charles Bronson vehicle doesn't entertain on the same level as a lot of the rest of the genre. There are certainly a lot of good things about this film; but unfortunately, there's also a lot of bad and the film features long stretches where little or nothing happens, which certainly isn't to its credit. It's a shame really as this has the basis to be one of the best of the Italian crime films just because of the fact that it stars the 'man of few words' Charles Bronson. The plot is pretty standard stuff, and focuses on a hit-man that is double crossed by his friend and girlfriend. After getting out of jail, he decides to take revenge on those that wronged him. However, some way into his revenge; he begins being blackmailed by a powerful crime boss that wants the hit-man in his organisation.Charles Bronson has a lot of screen presence, despite the fact that this role doesn't really suit him. His character is called 'Jeff' (it's really hard to imagine the grizzled Charles Bronson being called "Jeff"), and it's also rather difficult to imagine him having the women after him... The film's positives are, luckily, enough to save it from being a complete loss. The opening car chase is really good, and provides the perfect opening to the film. From there, we are treated to a handful of good action scenes, including plenty of shooting (a given, since the lead character is a hit-man). The sequence at the end is the best part of the film, as it's both exciting and inventive, and provides the perfect way for our lead character to get his revenge. The support cast isn't great, and features Telly Savalas, who is decent enough and Jill Ireland, who looks nice throughout. However, the plotting continually gets in the way and the fact that the film doesn't run smoothly greatly hinders it. Overall, Violent City certainly has its moments; but it's not one of the best crime films to come out of Italy during the seventies.