The Film (5/5)

    The fact that Umberto Lenzi is not more popular than has always been a surprise to me. He is, obviously quite popular in EuroCult circles especially for his work in the horror genre such as Nightmare City and the infamous Cannibal Ferox, however, the man created sheer entertaining cinema in every genre he touched, and Lenzi through his nearly half century career as a director nearly did them all. However, as a director Lenzi's best were truly in the Poliziotteschi genre. These were crime films which up the sleaze factor and had a decent amount of action to boot. Arguably, his most famous film in that genre is his 1974 film Almost Human.

   The film stars Tomas Milian (Django Kill...) as Guilio Sacchi a sleazy criminal who after a bank robbery gone awry is thrown out of his gang. He begins to leach off his girlfriend,  before he decides to kidnap her bosses’ daughter Marilu (Laura Belli). With a pair of his friends/co-conspirators they threaten her Father that they will kill Marilu unless they get half a billion lira. Along the way they enact a violent crime spree that gets the attention of police inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva) who begins to trail the gang as the bodies build up.

    Almost Human is arguably the best of Lenzi's Poliziotteschi work (though I'll advocate heavily for his later Rome Armed to the Teeth). It is also an overall genre highpoint with it's effective blend of action, plot twists, and sleaze. Tomas Milian, of course, owns the show with his performance as Guiloi Sacchi a villainous man who is 100% for himself, so much so that he will kill his friends, his girlfriend, and betray his gang to save his skin, and get his way. Lenzi keeps the film paced well with nary a boring moment to be had, and plenty of shocks all the way through.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Shameless presents Almost Human in a fantastic 2:35:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. The film has a very film like transfer with excellent detail, deep inky blacks, accurate flesh tones, and colors that are accurate to the look of the film.

    Audio is presented LPCM mono in both Italian and English. English subtitles are provided for the Italian track. Everything sounds quite satisfactory here with dialogue and score coming through nicely for both tracks.

Extras (3.5/5)

    Shameless have put together a solid extras package for this release including a new interview with director Umberto Lenzi who is never not interesting. There is also an interview with Tomas Milian, and archival interviews with Lenzi Ray Lovelock, and writer Ernesto Gastaldi.

Overall

   Almost Human is one of Lenzi's finest Poliziotteschi films. The Blu-ray from Shameless looks and sounds fantastic, and has a nice slate of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.