If you like "Charles Bronson movies" you'll like this Charles Bronson movie. We find him here, with his bandido mustache, in the rare role of a tough rogue cop who busts up the syndicate. The film opens with a shooting contest in New York between Bronson and a Puerto Rican kid who "wanted to be a comic book hero." One of the two winds up dead. Cut to the obligatory scene in which Bronson places his shield and his piece on the desk of his superiors.Yes, he's fired in New York, but he's welcomed by the LAPD. Working with a half-competent redneck partner, Lieutenant Bronson uncovers a plot by an old Mafia leader to wipe out the heads of all the other New York families because of a massive insult that took place forty-two years ago. The instrument of Martin Balsam's revenge will be the trained warriors who have returned deranged from their experiences in Vietnam. They, not Bronson, are the eponymous stone killers. Bronson is just an ordinary killer.Lots of familiar faces in the cast but they fail to lift it above the average "Charles Bronson movie." The location switches from coast to coast but that doesn't make any difference either. It's all derivative.When Bronson investigates a suspicious hippy girl -- this is 1972 -- we may recognize the location in which Paul Newman confronted Strother Martin in "Harper." The same gaggle of vegetarian goons are present, dressed like clowns, but this time the leader of the group goes into a rather interesting lecture on how "the blood of the cow and the animal fat clog up yer celebral arteries," and he delivers this encomium to carrots in what sounds like a Scandinavian accent.I don't know what the novel was like but it's been turned into a pulp movie full of shoot outs, cars chasing motorcycles on city streets, cars chasing cars in roiling clouds of dust across the desert floor, cars chasing cars in an underground parking garage -- and foot chases, in which man chases man in varying milieus. The environment I liked best was the mansion in the Mojave Desert, the house with the mastodon ribs as part of the decor.The musical score toggles between two modalities. There are the irritating metallic electronic guitars, which you can hear playing the main theme behind the opening credits. Then there is the suspense/action theme that is shamelessly ripped off from the still-quivering flank of "Bullet", including the ostinato that begins when Lieutenant Bullet snaps on his seat belt before the big chase.There's not much to be said about the acting. Martin Balsam handles the few lines of Italian well, considering that he's not a paisan. To make the story complete, somewhere along the line some fox should have lost her clothes and thrown herself at Bronson so that he could turn her away with a superior remark.

Screenwriter Gerald Wilson, actor Charles Bronson, and producer / director Michael Winner re-teamed for this action movie the year after making the Western "Chato's Land". Legendary tough guy Bronson is police detective Lou Torrey who uncovers a plot concocted by a mafia boss, Al Vescari (Martin Balsam), to assassinate (for vengeance sake) various other mobsters utilizing Vietnam veterans. Helped by some of his associates and hindered by others, Lou follows the chain of leads as the story progresses.What's pleasing about "The Stone Killer" is what a snappy and fast moving bit of entertainment it is. Now, this will require the viewer to pay attention all the time, which may be a bit of a tall order given how quickly events unfold and exposition is divulged, but the rewards are substantial. The action scenes are particularly invigorating, especially the climactic shootouts and one major chase sequence. Bronson also warms up for some of his future roles here playing a man fiercely dedicated to his job and who will also do pretty much anything to make sure it gets done.Another thing that really helps "The Stone Killer" is the fact that it does have a sense of humour - granted, not all the laughs are intentional, as the moment involving a body plummeting out a window towards the pavement will attest. But the sequence that features Torrey interrogating a lead (Kelley Miles) in a hippie commune really has to be seen to be believed; it's a total hoot. The violence is effectively brutal and bloody, with many characters pumped full of bullets by the time the story is over. The music score by Roy Budd is an eclectic one and thus highly enjoyable.In addition to the excellent Balsam, who joined Bronson again for "Death Wish 3" a dozen years later, the supporting cast is just FULL of familiar faces, some of them from TV: Jack Colvin ('The Incredible Hulk'), Paul Koslo ("The Omega Man"), Norman Fell AND John Ritter from 'Three's Company', Stuart Margolin ('The Rockford Files'), Charles Tyner ("Harold and Maude"), Frank Campanella, Robert Emhardt, Barry Cahill, Hoke Howell, and Hunter von Leer.With its twists, turns, laughs, and violent action, this is a reasonably fun movie worth watching for any fan of Bronson and cop movies in general. It gets down to business pretty quickly and there's hardly a letup until its ending.Seven out of 10.

Has everything a Man needs to see - politically uncorrect saxophone player, wild real life car chase, cops who want to protect the people, bad vermin, mafia, revenge given years later, violence. (Hey, real guy movies have to have bad stuff happen and people getting hurt who need it), corruption, etc. It's a damn good movie. Bullet car chase was gay in comparison. Music is good, shots are clean and show what they want, no artsy-faggy shots. Bronson gets to blow away people who need killing. I've watched this movie a few times and the date of the old crimes (I wont say) keeps popping up in my head. Some people never forget. I like that. We seem to be sissified - real Men need to watch films like this.

You either get Old Stone Face or you don't. I get him. He played virtually the same type of character in every movie from the '70s forward, although his character's profession changed from time to time. Didn't matter if he was an unflinching streetwise cop that walks outside the law to bring justice, an architect, or an amazingly tough journalist that can beat up bad guys as easily as normal people breath air (how often do you see that?), he was always a character that looked out for what was right, the law be damned. And no mamby pamby metrosexual stuff anywhere in sight.....This movie was interesting to me in that it was filmed during the prime of the '70s Cop Movie glory days and also happened to be part of the golden age for Bronson himself. I dig the terrible period clothing, hair and lingo. I also dig the neo-psychedelic soundtrack. It was rather amusing seeing Bronson amongst the young hippie burnouts at a wacked out party when he was searching for clues, talk about a fish out of water! And even way back then, the ever popular grouchy old Italian mobster stereotype was in full play, although this was one of the first Bronson films to do this (and it often resurfaced in his movies, even in Death Wish 4 decades later). It also featured several familiar faces including "Mr. Roper" of Three's Company as a cop(!) and "Jack Tripper" of the same show as a bumbling, inept rookie cop. Those with either sharp memories or an extensive Twilight Zone collection will recognize Mob Boss Vescari as the star of the much loved wax figures episode (New Exhibit).You're not going to see Oscar type performances in a Bronson film, but then again, that's not what they were shooting for. You do get a glimpse of a great period of gritty American cop films. They didn't have the internet to help them. No GPS. No Google maps. Just coffee, steel revolvers, typewriters and good old fashioned investigational work, and of course real cars that were driven to death by stunt men, not computer generated crashes. And you do get politically incorrect, 150 proof MANDOM of the kind that isn't made any more. And that makes for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in my book.