#crime-thriller

#crime-thriller

The corpse of a man killed trying to rob the place days earlier lies in the dirt nearby, covered by a hunk of cardboard. The local cops roll up before Armando can depart and harass him, presumably because he's driving a Beetle and has a beard. Armando keeps his cool and continues on his way, Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" coming out his car's speakers as he arrives in the northeastern city of Recife,

Nonstop gonzo mayhem is on show in this pulp shocker from 1980, beginning with an amazingly reckless, fender-mangling, passerby-endangering car chase which more or less takes up the first 20 minutes. It's a gritty New York sleazesploitation crime thriller with some gobsmackingly over-the-top punch-ups and shootouts; some of the attitudes to ethnicity and sexual politics can only be described as of their time. Those who prefer 21st-century standards of good taste had better look away now.

This Macau-set cops-and-robbers thriller even has a little fun by introducing him as a retired cop turned dog walker called Wong, surrounded by a motley pack of pooches that he marshals expertly through the streets. Once the best surveillance man on the force, Wong's observational skills have not faded a jot, as he proves by recounting exactly which of his doggie charges pooped in what order. More importantly, he can still take on young ruffians a third of his age,

The Better Sister tries to position itself as a fresh take on the classic murder mystery, but ultimately feels stale and redundant.

The show is a gritty crime thriller set against the dust-covered backdrop of 1970s America, where the lines between outlaws and law enforcement were often blurred.