One of Enzo Castellari's great '70s crime films. Fabio Testi is a police inspector bent on ridding the city of a gang of brutal extortionists only to be rebuffed continually by a corrupt legal system. Taking matters into his own hands, he recruits a number of the gang's victims to help exact revenge. An extremely violent (even for a Castellari) film that takes no prisoners. Test is terrific and the supporting cast is unusually strong: Vincent Gardenia; Renzo Palmer; Glauco Onorato; Orso Maria Guerrini. Castellari moves this film along so quickly it's breathtaking. There are a number of now legendary action sequences including an astounding and protracted shoot out in an abandoned factory that has to be seen to be believed. The great music score by Guido is a major asset and the beautiful cinematography is by Marcello Masciocchi.

A brilliant addition to the Italian crime genre and sure to capture the heart of any sleaze lover, "The Big Racket" is definitely one of the best in it's class.Fabio Testi is a knockout as the protagonist, a renegade cop who is out for blood and justice, assembling a team of outcasts to punish the wicked. Plenty of blood and violence adorn this flick, and I recommend a couple of cold Peroni's and a plate to spaghetti for the perfect evening.All in all, probably my second favorite Castellari effort, second only to "The Inglourious Bastards" but I think "The Big Racket" is technically a BETTER film. No complaints at all here.10 out of 10, kids.

No, not a film about cheating at Wimbledon, but rather an enjoyably trashy Italian crime flick about a tough cop determined to bring to justice the violent gangsters responsible for running a nationwide protection racket.Fabio Testi (snigger, snigger) is Nico Palmieri, a hard as nails copper who is forced into taking extreme measures in order to defeat the bad guys. After usual police procedures fail to stop the escalating violence, Nico gathers together a group of embittered victims lusting for vengeance (plus an ageing hit-man keen to earn himself a passport) and sets out to blast the scum into oblivion.Director Enzo G. Castellari (he who made the original Inglorious Bastards) conducts proceedings with gusto and an eye for an interesting shot (Testi's car crash, seen from inside the rolling vehicle, is particularly impressive), and despite an increasingly preposterous plot, this movie will prove to be loads of fun for those who enjoy the genre, with bloody shoots outs and fist-fights aplenty.The diabolical English dubbing, which replaces swear words with some really daft alternatives, is also rather entertaining: it took me a while to understand exactly what was going on, but once I'd cottoned on, the words 'diddly' and 'basket' had me in stitches.

A script doesn't necessarily have to be realistic to be good. In my opinion, all it needs its to make sense, to be credible within itself. This movie has it all and its very fast paced. It is a very good attempt to expand the perspective of the action movies back then, and I consider it, along with "Perros Callejeros 1 and 2" the best european action movies of the 70s, the background for much of the filmmaking that we see today as "new", and a great spectacle. The enchant of these movies is that, even though some special effects are not credible at all (some of the shot wounds don't bleed at all), those that do required cars to be burnt and some stunts to expose themselves are better than those the new computarized hollywood movies have.It doesnt make you feel like you are watching cartoons. I admit that the beauty of movies is fantasy. But when i compare this movie to any action movie from hollywood, I come to the conclusion that fantasy doesn't necessarily have to please anybodies wishes nor to be custom made for a certain public, but to show different prespectives than those that public has.the only problem...Real hard to find