This strangely colorless film blends elements from several different genres -- Mafia pictures, drug deal features, your basic shoot 'em up actionfest, and a standard car chase romp, all tied together with a mismatched buddy crime-fighting duo -- into a bland mishmash that crucially fails to develop a flavorful distinction which could have allowed all the disparate bits and pieces to jell into a pleasingly coherent and enjoyable whole. Moreover, the unmistakably British Roger Moore is horribly miscast as a partly Italian lawyer who's assigned by a powerful mob capo to nail the three brutal thugs who smuggled a million dollars worth of smack into the country by hiding the dope inside a large wooden cross. Moore, assisted by jocular grand prix professional race car driver Stacy Keach (who gives a solid, lively performance that's much better than the insipid material deserves), pounds the pavement for the dirtbags and uncovers a series of double and triple crosses which lead to a shocking revelation of a grim secret stemming from Moore's shadowy past. Maurizio Lucidi's merely adequate direction remains resolutely workmanlike from start to finish, putting too much emphasis on dull chitchat during the opening and middle of the movie. In addition, the poky, erratic pace and a curious sense of unfortunate restraint prevents this picture from acquiring both the baroque style and trashy vitality it needs to seriously cook. However, things do finally come to life in the reasonably sound and exciting last half hour, with a rousing car chase and a few bloody shoot-outs enlivening the general tedium. Still, the humdrum script that was co-written by noted screenwriter Ernest Tidyman (who also penned "Shaft" and "The French Connection") and future "Grease" director Randal Kleiser, sticks too closely to run-of-the-mill predictable and unsurprising crime thriller conventions, thereby making this mediocre outing a strictly middling and passable time-killer at best.
Review of Street People
