90% (3) The French Connection 104 min, R, [Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller] [William Friedkin] [09 Oct 1971]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 98%, Metacritic: 96%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 5 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 10 nominations.
Actors: Fernando Rey, Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco
Writer: Ernest Tidyman (screenplay by), Robin Moore (based on the book by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: William Friedkin's gritty police drama portrays two tough New York City cops trying to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. An interesting contrast is established between 'Popeye' Doyle, a short-tempered alcoholic bigot who is nevertheless a hard-working and dedicated police officer, and his nemesis Alain Charnier, a suave and urbane gentleman who is nevertheless a criminal and one of the largest drug suppliers of pure heroin to North America. During the surveillance and eventual bust, Friedkin provides one of the most gripping and memorable car chase sequences ever filmed.
Rotten Tomatoes: This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of New York City's dope, and Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) is a hired killer and Charnier's right-hand man. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber), who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about 7,000 dollars a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right -- Sal and Angie are the New York agents for Charnier, who will be smuggling 32 million dollars' worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France. The French Connection broke plenty of new ground for screen thrillers; Popeye Doyle was a highly unusual "hero," an often violent, racist, and mean-spirited cop whose dedication to his job fell just short of dangerous obsession. The film's high point, a high-speed car chase with Popeye tailing an elevated train, was one of the most viscerally exciting screen moments of its day and set the stage for dozens of action sequences to follow. And the film's grimy realism (and downbeat ending) was a big change from the buff-and-shine gloss and good-guys-always-win heroics of most police dramas that preceded it. The French Connection was inspired by a true story, and Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, Popeye and Buddy's real life counterparts, both have small roles in the film. A sequel followed four years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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84% (2) The Seven-Ups 103 min, PG, [Action, Crime, Drama] [Philip D'Antoni] [14 Dec 1973]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, Rotten Tomatoes: 83%, External Reviews
Actors: Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Victor Arnold
Writer: Albert Ruben (screenplay), Alexander Jacobs (screenplay), Sonny Grosso (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Italian Country: USA
Plot: Buddy, Barilli, Mingo and Ansel, detectives with the NYPD, comprise a secret investigative unit called the Seven-Ups, who, largely undercover, focus on cases leading to felony convictions with prison sentences of seven years or more for the criminals in question. Many within the NYPD who know about the unit don't support the idea of it because of the often unethical way they work on the cases, but their superior, Inspector Gilson, defends the unit solely because of the results. On the sly, Buddy, who is the head of the team, gets much of the information for the cases from Vito Lucia, a childhood friend who still lives and works in the old neighborhood where much of the crime is based. Vito knows that his life could be in danger if the mob finds out that he acts as a snitch for the police. After Buddy starts looking into the loan sharking business of some local mob members, unknown to him some of those mob members are shaken down for a minimum $100,000 apiece, one by one kidnapped for ransom before they are released when the extortionists are able to abscond with the ransom money. The M.O. of the extortionists is for two to act as police detectives bringing the mob member in for questioning, before showing their true colors of kidnapping the person for ransom. The mob has no reason to doubt that the men truly are NYPD gone bad. Buddy even sees one of them taken in, a bail bondsman named Festa with mob ties, he knowing that what he witnessed was not what it appeared on the surface, however unaware that this situation was not a one off in the scuttlebutt he had previous heard about general unrest on the streets. By the time that Buddy learns of the serial kidnappings and the unofficial war the mob has with the NYPD because of it, Buddy and the team are determined to nab the mastermind behind the extortions as it has become more than a professional issue for them.
Rotten Tomatoes: This was the only directorial effort of Philip D'Antoni, producer of the action classic Bullitt (1968). Roy Scheider stars as Buddy Manucci, a New York City Police Department investigator running a task force charged with taking down criminals guilty of offenses that would get them a minimum sentence of seven years in prison upon conviction. Manucci's best street informant is Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco), who double-crosses Manucci by using the lawman's secret list of Mob loan sharks to kidnap the crooks on the list and hold them for ransom. When the scheme results in the death of Ansel (Ken Kercheval), one of Manucci's men, the tough cop and his team, including Barilli (Victor Arnold) and Mingo (Jerry Leon), wage war on the city's underworld. As they bend the law in whatever violent shape they see fit in order to track Lucia down, grisly deaths and a heart-stopping highway car chase along the Hudson River ensue.
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84% (2) City of Hope 129 min, R, [Crime, Drama] [John Sayles] [15 Nov 1991]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 94%, External Reviews
Awards: 5 wins & 4 nominations.
Actors: Chris Cooper, Stephen Mendillo, Tony Lo Bianco, Vincent Spano
Writer: John Sayles
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: City of Hope is a portrait of a typical middle-sized American city of the present day. The crux of the story is an old apartment block which stands in the way of a major commercial development. Joe Rinaldi is the building contractor who owns the buildings, and is being pressured to torch them to permit the development to occur. His estranged son, Nick, soon becomes a pawn in the power politics of the city. Corrupt Mayor Baci and policeman O'Brien are determined to push the development, while idealistic city councilman Wynn soon finds himself torn between what he knows is right and what his black constituents want.
Rotten Tomatoes: Set in the fictional New Jersey metropolis of Hudson, three intricately interwoven tales involving real estate, robbery, and racial tension comprise a complex study of crime, corruption, and political machinery.
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83% (2) The Honeymoon Killers 107 min, R, [Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller] [Leonard Kastle, Donald Volkman] [16 Oct 1970]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 95%, External Reviews
Actors: Doris Roberts, Mary Jane Higby, Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco
Writer: Leonard Kastle
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In the early 1950s, Martha Beck, who lives with her slightly senile mother, is the head nurse in a Mobile, Alabama hospital. She is bitter about her life, she not having male companionship in large part because she is overweight, while her bitterness in turn does not endear her to people. She is initially angry with her best friend, Bunny, for signing her up to a lonely hearts club, but eventually decides to give it a try. Through it, she meets Ray Fernandez, a suave Spanish immigrant living in New York, he who contacted Martha as the first through the club. After Ray's trip to Mobile to meet Martha, they fall in love. Upon a subsequent visit Martha makes to Ray in New York - which leads to her being fired in part for her time off work - he decides to be up front with her: that she is not only not his "first" but that he is really a con man who, primarily through the club, seduces then bilks lonely women of their money. Pretending to be his sister to prospective targets, Martha decides to join Ray on his cons as they travel the country together. Their differences in style causes problems, Martha who is more direct, more impatient and more violent, she who is the first to consider killing to get what they want. But what has the potential to be the primary cause of their downfall is Martha's jealousy over Ray even pretending to seduce other women, let alone any time he may have sex with them.
Rotten Tomatoes: Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) is a lonely nurse who takes care of her invalid mother in Mobile, Alabama. Starved for affection, she places an ad in a lonely hearts column and soon receives a letter from Ray Fernandez (Tony LoBianco). He meets her and runs off with her dowry to New York City. Martha puts her mother in a nursing home and follows the handsome con artist. She agrees to pose as his sister as the two fleece lonely, unsuspecting women out of their money. Martha's jealousies of Ray's victims leads to murder. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, an elderly matron is killed and her child is drowned in a washing machine. Martha considers confessing to the police when she finally realizes Ray will never be true to her or any other woman. The story was taken from actual events, and the real-life couple were eventually executed in Sing Sing prison in 1951. The black-and-white photography adds an aura of authenticity to the documentary-style production.
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70% (2) God Told Me To 91 min, R, [Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller] [Larry Cohen] [22 Oct 1976]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 63%, Rotten Tomatoes: 78%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors: Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis, Sylvia Sidney, Tony Lo Bianco
Writer: Larry Cohen (original screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: The storyline of this movie involves a series of motiveless murders committed by various New York residents: a sniper shoots people from a water tower; a father murders his entire family; and a cop opens fire during a St. Patrick's Day parade. The only consistent pattern to the crimes involves the perpetrators calm admissions of guilt, explaining, "God told me to." While investigating the murders, catholic police detective Peter Nicholas is increasingly troubled by evidence of a Christ-like figure named Bernard Phillips who appeared to each of the killers and can't seem to shake the feeling that his own fate is somewhat linked to this mysterious being. As he comes closer to the truth, his worst fears are confirmed.
Rotten Tomatoes: A New York detective investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."
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58% (1) Bloodbrothers 116 min, R, [Drama] [Robert Mulligan] [06 Jan 1979]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 58%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 nominations.
Actors: Lelia Goldoni, Paul Sorvino, Richard Gere, Tony Lo Bianco
Writer: Richard Price (based on the novel by), Walter Newman (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A young man is torn between following in his brothers' footsteps or striking out on his own.
Rotten Tomatoes: Bloodbrothers, a slice-of-life study of the emotional upheavals of the Italian-American De Coco family in the Bronx, wears its heart on its blue-collar, with Tony Lo Bianco as the macho hard-hat father and Paul Sorvino as the florid Italian uncle. Richard Gere is the softy son of Lo Bianco who doesn't want to continue the family tradition of working as a construction laborer. Instead, he'd rather work in a hospital ward and take care of sick children. And as beer bottles smash against the sidewalk, women throw themselves at the sweaty he-men, and fights break out around the block, Gere must decide whether he's mender of buildings or children.
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