Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A decidedly lighter tone lingers in Tomas Milian and Umberto Lenzi's next pairing after the dark and demented MILANO ODIA. This time around, Milian plays Rambo, a drifter who rides on a motorcycle from town to town teaching things to kids and reluctantly getting involved in anti-gang activities. Once his goofball security guard friend gets killed after snooping around a little too close to a kidnapping scheme, Rambo decides to hatch his own Yojibo-like plan to get all the local gangs to kill each other. However, they unexpectedly prove slightly smarter than you'd expect and end up teaming up to fight together against our hero, albeit with no better results than they'd have otherwise.Right from the get-go, I knew it was going to be good just judging by the opening credits and how many of the usual "Euro-Henchmen" receive top billing. Riccardo Petrazzi, Adolfo Lastretti, Bruno Di Luia, Mario Novelli, Benito Pacifico, Claudio Ruffini, Giuseppe Castellano, and Luciano Pigozzi would go on to make type-cast careers as henchmen and goons throughout the rest of the 70's owing largely to how well this movie worked out. Even Antonio Casale, the "Brion James" of Italian 70's crime movies, pops by to lend us another sweaty, ugly face for our hero to beat to a pulp and put a bullet in. Sadly we're missing only Nello Pazzafini, Biagio Pelligra, Bruno Corazzari, any Dell'Acqua's, Peverello's, or Sal's Borghese and Billa. Toss in a Sergio Smacchi and our henchman reunion would be complete.With all the potential and solid cast of villains for Rambo to beat up and shoot, the film doesn't quite hit the high notes that later films like VIOLENT NAPLES or ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH would the next year. There's a distractingly silly Micalizzi score and the plot contains enough holes and slow spots to take this down a notch. Best for genre completists or those interested in seeing the true genesis of Milian's later "Nico Giraldi" character. Notable mostly for a demented scene in which a female character gets unintentionally beaten to death by a gang of clueless hit-men.

Another feather in the cap for director Umberto Lenzi and star Tomas Milian, this ultra-slick crime flick is a fine example of the "polizia" genre at its paciest and most fun: what starts off looking like a silly comedy-action film like THE COP IN BLUE JEANS soon takes a darker turn and becomes more serious, ending up as a tough thriller with a high body count and lots of cheesy stunts. The hero role of Rambo is taken by Tomas Milian this time around (usually playing a crippled or sadistic villain in Lenzi films from the period) and it's a great part: Rambo (no relation to the Sly Stallone character - this one came first) is an unshaven, masked motorbike-riding outlaw who has a thing about justice prevailing and murdering bad guys. As he's not part of the law he instead works around it, taking on the criminal gangs himself and turning them against each other. What's funniest about this film is the almost total lack of police presence! Gangs tear up the city and kill each other and they're nowhere in sight. Rambo's motorbike is gazed at lovingly by Lenzi's camera and he takes every opportunity to show off the sleek chrome bodywork, especially in lots of cheesy bike-jumping stunts that punctuate the action.Rambo also knows his own unique brand of karate, meaning we get lots of demonstrations as he effortlessly beats up thugs in a pool hall and takes on a room of practising karate students! The film begins as Rambo visits the home of an old pal, who has joined a police group and insists that Rambo does the same. Being a good-natured chap he helps to capture a few saboteurs and minor criminals. After the characters have been introduced, Rambo's buddy ends up getting violently murdered when he's close to cracking a kidnapping case - hardly surprising, seeing as he is set up for murder ever since his first appearance. Rambo decides to follow in his pal's footsteps and finds himself involved with two criminal gangs, led by ageing crime boss Paterno and slimy villain Conti. At first he successfully turns the two gangs against each other, causing much bloodshed, but then they wise up and turn against him. A tide of retribution and revenge follows with casualties on all sides.Nearly every technical element of the film is perfect. Cinematography, stunts, pacing, action, chases and dialogue all slot in nicely to the story. The only thing lacking is the music, which is a little sub-par for a Lenzi flick and not snazzy enough. Once again Lenzi has assembled an accomplished team of actors (most of whom were working in films back-to-back for the director) for his cast. Supporting the ever-excellent Milian are the exquisitely slimy Luciano Catenacci as the villain Conti and good old Luciano Pigozzi as a thug. The experienced Ida Galli and Shirley Corrigan play minor female roles whilst the retired Mafia don Paterno is played by American import actor Joseph Cotten. All in all a nice mix who fit their roles perfectly.As well as the many pacy car and bike chases that speed through the film, there are a couple of shoot-outs which deserve note. The first is the attack on Conti's warehouse operation by Paterno's guys dressed as police. Lots of bloody machine-gun shootings and spraying bullet action ensues. For the film's under siege set-piece finale, there's a shoot-out in the grounds of a deserted house played out in the middle of the night to the light of a flare - a clever and original touch. Although not as sadistic as previous or later Lenzi films the film does have a few gruesome asides, like an innocent woman being beaten to death and a guy (regular scumbag Bruno Corazzari) literally overdosing on cocaine! These factors and more combine to make RAMBO'S REVENGE yet another quality genre contribution from Lenzi and a film to track down.

One of the myriad "poliziotteschi" to emerge from Italy during the 1970s, to which both director Lenzi and star Tomas Milian contributed a good deal; in fact, their previous collaboration – ALMOST HUMAN (1974) – is considered among the genre high-points. This, however, is fairly indistinguishable – apart from the fact that the surname of Milian's character is Rambo!; it does include plenty of typical action, not to mention a funky score by Franco Micalizzi. Rambo is a reformed gangster who now supplies iconoclastic help to the Police; predictably, his best pal in the force (actually a special vigilante squad) ends up murdered before long – which sets Rambo on exacting private revenge. This sees him coming face to face once again with his former boss, a now-blind Joseph Cotten (who, like Milian, followed a certain code of ethics in spite of the nature of the work involved) whose 'empire' is being unscrupulously run by the old man's son, Alfredo Lastretti. A smaller rival band of criminals – among whose members is the ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi – also gets into our disheveled hero's hair by kidnapping an eminent citizen (Silvano Tranquilli)'s son. Incidentally, this incongruous sentimental emphasis on kids – since Milian also dotes on his cop friend's idolizing offspring – does the film the biggest harm; at the same time, while keeping an affectionate (but platonic) eye on the latter boy's mum, he is romantically involved with a prostitute (Femi Benussi) – who, unsurprisingly, is eventually victimized by the baddies for it. Though consistently offering reasonable gratification of various sorts, most examples of the poliziottesco genre suffered from a shallowness that made them instantly forgettable – and this one, alas, proved no exception despite the involvement of two of its major exponents.

Tomas Milian is Rambo - a biker who arrives in Milan right in the middle of a war between two crime families. When his brother, a member of a kidnap investigation team, is killed, Rambo seeks revenge. He pits the two families against each other in hopes that they will destroy themselves so he can free the young boy being held for ransom.Syndicate Sadists was a blind purchase for me and I couldn't be more thrilled. This marks one of my first forays into the Italian sub-genre known as Polizia (or whatever the correct word is). And, I must say that I'm thrilled to have discovered these movies. If some of the others that I have on order (Contraband and Revolver) are half as good, I'll be delighted.I always have a good time watching Tomas Milian. He may come across as a conceited jerk in some of his interviews, but he has good reason. He never fails to entertain. His character, Rambo (please note that this movie was made long before First Blood), is one of my favorites. He's tough, compassionate, and mysterious.The action and gunplay are great. Between the gun fights and chase scenes, there is plenty of action to go around. One of my favorite scenes in the movie was the relatively calm showdown at the end between Rambo and the head of one of the families. Any movie that puts Milian and the scene-chewing Joseph Cotton together is a Euro-film lover's wet dream.If the brief description of the plot sounds familiar, don't be surprised. Once the movie got rolling, I said to myself on a number of occasions that it reminded me of A Fistful of Dollars. Imagine my surprise when my notion was confirmed while watching the interview with Lenzi on the DVD. He freely admitted that the story was inspired by Leone's film.