IMDb > Luca il contrabbandiere (1980) > IMDb user comments
Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]
Index 25 comments in total 

8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Ahh, sunny Napoli...with gore, guns & guts..., 29 June 2003
7/10
Author: macabro357 from U.S.

(aka: CONTRABAND)

Normally I don't comment on non-horror or mondo films but since Fulci directed it, and since there's enough gore splatter in here to finance a small horror film, I'm gonna put my two cents in.

Fabio Testi plays a Neapolitan cigarette smuggler who's territory is being muscled in on by the Margliese (Marcel Bozzuffi) who wants a clear way to smuggle heroin into Italy using Naples as an entry point.

One by one, Testi's comrades are being killed off in many different gruesome ways, including the backs of heads being blown off, a rotting cadaver thrown through a window, blood bags exploding in stomachs with intestines flying out, and a pretty female drug courier getting half her face burned off by one of the Margilese's henchman.

This has to be one of the goriest crime thrillers I have seen so far. Fulci pulls no stops here and the bad guys are truly gonna get what they deserve. The ending shootout in the street between the Margilese's men and the retired Camorra bosses is classic Fulci.

The Blue Underground DVD uses an excellent widescreen print that is only marred in a couple of places by bad splicing. The only extras that come with it are a couple of bios (Fulci and Testi) and an American trailer.

If you want to see violent crime thriller that doesn't pull any stops like the American ones do, then go see this one!

Recommended! 7 out of 10

Was the above comment useful to you?

9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Intestines and Testi, 29 March 2003
Author: Samoan Bob from Menifee, California

Lucio Fulci's ultraviolent crime film is an enjoyable and unintentionally hilarious action flick with the requisite amount of gore one expects from a Fulci film. Fabio Testi (tee-hee!) plays a cigarette smuggler who gets entangled in a bunch of gang-land shootings. Melting corpses, burning skin, shot-open necks, repeatedly shot paper mache heads, shotgun blasted intestines (that seem to be made out of foam) ensue. In addition to that, there's a decent shootout or punch-up here and there. The highlight is some nerdy guy getting massive breasts shoved in his face. Well, at least for me.

Was the above comment useful to you?

5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Sleazy crime thriller by Lucio Fulci, 11 October 2006
4/10
Author: Camera Obscura from Leiden, The Dutch Mountains

CONTRABAND (Lucio Fulci - Italy 1980).

It's great to see all the familiar faces from the heydays of European bad cinema together again. Bad film-making without the slightest wit or irony. Those were the days... They all lined up for this very sleazy and sadistic "Poliziottesco" by Lucio Fulci, his only foray into the crime genre, and I'm glad it was the only one he made. Fabio Testi is the focal point as Luca Di Angelo, an idealistic family man and cigarette smuggler in this tale of mob warfare in economically depressed Naples. When a rival gang massacres his brother and abducts his wife, Luca goes berserk and triggers an all-out mob war, with virtually every Don in town getting involved.

Testi is OK in the lead and Marcel Bozzufi (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) makes quite an impact as "The Margliese", a Frenchman who tries to muscle his way into the Neapolitan crime world. He really is the most sadistic and ruthless crime figure you'll ever see. I figure this film would satisfy most Fulci fans. Torture, rape, bare flesh, endless shoot-outs and plenty of sleaze and violence make this slightly entertaining. I could sit through this because there's quite a lot of action and it's never really dull, but otherwise beware. This film has some of the most atrocious English dubbing I know , real bad, only made worse by the already howlingly awful dialog and some wooden acting. What about that club scene? I think they took some dialog from a totally different movie there (Blue Underground's release didn't include an Italian audiotrack), it didn't make sense whatsoever. Even by grade-Z poliziotteschi standards, this was pretty mystifying.

The film also features a soundtrack with some Italian pseudo-rock 1980 style. I can't really describe it, but it was annoying and totally inappropriate for the scenes. Fulci does show some of his earlier cinematic flair in some (especially interior) scenes, but then ruins it all in the next with bad lighting and bad editing, like showing somebody's head blown off, before the actual shot is being fired. In an earlier comment someone remarked the gore was very realistic. Well, what can I say? If you think blood looks like strawberry juice, I guess it does.

Camera Obscura --- 4/10

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Underrated, 3 November 2000
Author: marquis de cinema from Boston, MA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Luca il Contrabbandiere/The Smuggler(1980) is a very good Italian mafia flick that is overlooked by the gothic films of Lucio Fulci from that period. Its a transitional film that is the middle film between Zombie(1979) and The City of the Living Dead(1980). Its about a group of smugglers led by Fabio Testi who battles with drug dealers who want a piece of the action. The Smuggler(1980) is an anti Delitto film because the police do not take part in the violence. It was the only gangster flick in Fulci's resume.

The scene at an industrial limepit site has a dimension of horror. Not just a Godfather ripoff, The Smuggler is quite convincing at showing the brutal nature of the drug dealers. The movie at times becomes boring and slow moving. As good as the best of Fernando Di Leo and Umberto Lenzi. Its a shame that Fulci didn't do many more action films then this.

Fans of Lucio Fulci were turned off the this because the violence is played in a realistic enviroment instead of the fantasy format that many fans were accustom to. There are two scenes of violence that many people found repulsive. One, the torture of a female drug runner(in lingering detail no less) by way of burning from blowtouch. Two, the vicious rape and sodomy of Adele Di Angelo(tension builder). The murders of Perlante's sidekick and female companion has a suspenseful build up to it.

Fulci does a good job in portraying the violent nature of the characters. He directs the action of the picture with flair. Fulci appears as a gun toting assassin. The death of Perlante is one of the major pluses for the picture. The Smuggler(1980), I think is one of Lucio Fulci's top motion pictures.

Fabio Testi is good as the head smuggler, Luca Di Angelo. Very similar in plot to Four of the Apocalypse(1974). Deserves the attention of being released on Home Video by Anchor Bay. Some of the action resembles the style of "Heroic Bloodshed" films in Hong Kong during the mid 80's. Fabio Frizzi's score is both offbeat and weird.

The special effects are at times gruesomely realistic. The old members of the Mob spent much of the film sitting and watching Italian Westerns on television at home. Its only near the end that they decide to take on the French gangster. The ending is the weakest part of the film. The murder of Mickey Di Angelo is done wonderfully with different camera shots.

A grotesque mise en scene includes a man who loses his stomach to a shotgun blast. Sergio Salvati's camera gives the film a stylized appearence. One of The Smuggler's main strength is the smooth editing. Contains almost the same flaws that made the Hong Kong flicks, Rich & Famous + Tragic Hero very good but inconsistent films. Good as part of a triple bill with Massacre Time(1965) and Four of the Apocalypse(1974).

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A vendetta of blood and guts., 8 March 2008
6/10
Author: lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.

Here's another one outside the horror genre for director Lucio Fulci. He crafts a brutally biting, if disjointed Italian crime melodrama that serves to make you squirm in it gratuitous acts of extremely depraved violence and sleaziness. Fulci definitely left his calling card on this one, with many unforgettably unflinching nasty moments (like an uncomfortable face-melting scene). The superfluous gore and mean-spirited nature is great, but a lack of any real tension-building does hurt it. The twisty story is frank and unspectacular even with its shifty chain of bleak events and the script is weakly penned (the unsuitable humour when included falling flat), but being broken up by its impulsively vivid action stunts (nice use of slow-motion too) and gorgeous Naples' backdrop, leaves quite a hypnotic imprint. Sergio Salvati's brashly sharp and tight camera-work, interlocks with Fulci's kinetic visual bursts and rounding it off nicely is composer Fabio Frizzi's ever-changing, saucy music score that doesn't lye down. Performances are workably tailored. There's a humanely chiselled and honest performance by Fabio Testi. Marcel Bozuffi makes for a great smarmy, calculating French Mafia Don trying to take over Testi's character's turf. Ivana Monti, Ferdinand Murolo, Saverio Marconi and Guido Alberti provide able support. Quite an edgy, blunt and vicious crime joint that basically gets it kicks off its effectively rousing, if scandalous violence than anything more.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Maestro does it Again!!!, 2 August 1999
Author: Jerry-93 from Milwaukee, WI

Fulci's movies tend to be a mixed: they're either terribly good or terribly bad. This one is terribly good. The plot is simple: Testi plays Luca, a cigarette smuggler who is reluctant to go into business with a powerful gangster. When Luca refuses, the gangster gets mad, and makes Luca's life a Hell, namely by killing his friends and abducting his wife.

Like all Fulci movies, this one is pretty slow going some of the time, but wait til the gang war gets started!!! We got heads blowing off, faces burned off, throats and stomachs blown out, and all the nudity you could ever ask for. Even has a happy ending (or what passes for a happy ending in these films). Fans of the crime genre will not be disappointed.

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Gruesome Crime Flick From The Godfather Of Gore, 29 August 2007
6/10
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

Although no highlight of the Italian Crime genre, Lucio Fulci's "Luca Il Contrabbandiere" aka "Contraband" is a rough, tough-minded and ultra-violent Gangster flick that certainly delivers, especially for a Fulci fan. Lucio Fulci is widely renowned as the 'Godfather Of Gore', and "Contraband" is a movie that is certainly not going to deprive him of this well-deserved reputation. Although the plot may not be as original as it was the case with many other of the (generally violent) Italian Crime Thrillers of the 70s and early 80s, "Contraband" scores in means of roughness, intransigence and gruesome, gory violence.

Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) and many of his friends make a living as cigarette smugglers in Naples. After their refusal to deal with drugs instead of cigarettes, ruthless drug dealers, amongst them a sadistic gangster from Marseille start to target the cigarette smugglers' families. Luca, however, is not the kind of man who gives in to threats...

Fabio Testi, who had already worked with Lucio Fulci in "Four Of The Apocalypse" in 1975 (aside Tomas Milian and Lynne Frederick), delivers a good leading performance as Luca, and Marcel Bozzuffi is wonderfully evil in his role of the villain. I also found several of the supporting actors, such as Guido Alberti (who only has a very small role) very good. Some other supporting cast members deliver rather bad performances. The violence is pretty brutal and includes several very nasty scenes of torture and sexual violence. There are some scenes that don't really fit in, such as some cheesy looking and kitschy slow-mo sequences of horses at a racecourse, and the music is sometimes out of place, but all in all, the movie's qualities come up for its flaws. "Contraband" is certainly no highlight of Italian crime cinema, but a brutal and uncompromising flick that highly entertains. Fans of Lucio Fulci and Crime thrillers of the rough kind should be pleased.

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Lucio Fulci's extremely brutal, gritty and violent crime Mafia action flick, 30 March 2006
8/10
Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Easygoing Naples cigarette contraband smuggler Luca Di Angelo (a solid performance by the handsome and charismatic Fabio Testi) ain't having an easy time of it: his beautiful, but fed-up wife (the luscious Ivana Monti) can't stand his law-breaking lifestyle, the zealous local police are closing in for an arrest, and ruthless narcotics baron the Marsiguese (a splendidly hateful'n'heinous villainous turn by Marcel Bozzufi of "The French Connection") wants Luca and his fellow smugglers to start peddling hard drugs. Things go from bad to worse after Luca's brother gets rubbed out, leading to an all-out ferocious turf war in which various criminals gets bumped off in assorted grisly ways.

Lucio Fulci compensates for the occasionally poky pacing, a rather tedious opening third and the grinding predictability of the standard crime/action thriller scenario by pouring on the excessively gory and gruesome graphic carnage with his customary rough and lingering aplomb: One guy gets tossed into a pit of sulfuric acid, another dude has his brains blown out, a lovely lady courier has her face viciously disfigured with a Bunsen burner, yet another fellow has his stomach blasted wide open, and countless crooks bleed several pints worth of blood when they get filled full of bullets. In a particularly nasty scene Luca is forced to helplessly listen over the phone as the Marsiguese's brutish goons savagely rape and defile his screaming'n'squirming abducted wife. It's these foul, harsh, exceedingly gritty and unflinchingly nihilistic touches that distinguish this hard-hitting feature and lift it well out of the rut of your run-of-the-mill generic crime opus. Topped off with a rousing climax and a perfectly bleak bummer ending (Luca gets his revenge, but it comes at a horrible and substantial personal price), this no-holds-barred cruel and wicked film rates as one of Fulci's most unjustly neglected and underrated movies.

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Fulci action flick, 22 June 2004
8/10
Author: ericdetrick2002 from Maryland

I wish Fulci made more films like this. I think part of my liking it is that it has a lot of elements that I love about 70s Italian horror films- gore, funky soundtrack, dubbed in english, and did I mention gore?

This actually had a pretty decent crime family story line to it too, and it was set in Italy. So much of the Italian crime family movies are set in New York, this takes us back to the homeland. You probably won't find this in Blockbuster or

Hollywood Video. I had to buy myself a copy online, but I am a collector of Fulci films. Blue Underground has a really nice quality print out on DVD- check it out!

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Fulci branches out to bullet gore, 17 March 2003
Author: Dr. Gore (drgore@hotmail.com) from Los Angeles, California

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I had wanted to see this one for some time. Fulci. Mafia. Gore. The pieces were there. I've enjoyed most of Fulci's horror flicks so I thought I would give this one a try.

Gangsters are feuding in Naples. The main character Luca goes to war against a rival Mafia gang. Luca is a gentle sort who only wants to smuggle cigarettes. The new gang wants to use Luca to smuggle drugs. They reach an impasse in the negotiations. Soon they will settle their differences with an obscene amount of bullets. Mangled corpses start piling up.

As a Mafia movie, it was OK. It takes about 20-25 minutes to get to the action. Soon gangsters are causing each other pain. This is where Fulci shines. "Contraband" gives him the chance to go for some serious bullet gore. Blood is spraying. There is one effect where a guy gets shot in the stomach with a shotgun and his belly opens up like a giant red piñata. It's his birthday! There were plenty of other nasty bullet shots too. Fulci also delivers three or four disfigured corpses. Oh, and two torture scenes, one involving a Bunsen burner and lots of seared flesh.

What I'm saying is, "Contraband" has its points. There is enough gore here to make it interesting. I can't say I was on the edge of my seat with suspense, but I did enjoy the Mafia blood and guts.

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Plot synopsis Ratings
External reviews Parents Guide Plot keywords
Main details Your user comments Your vote history