Perhaps I should clarify the odd user-comment's title first. Where I'm from, which is Flanders in Belgium, the curious word "amai" can have several meanings, but it's most frequently used as a term to express astonishment. In the beautiful song playing throughout the opening credits, it really sounds as if the girl is singing "Amai! Amai! Amai!". It's obviously not the case, as she sings "Amare, Amare, Amare" and the song itself is called "Amare Senza Mai Pensare".
Yours truly thinks "Cross Shot" is another amazing entry in fabulous euro-crime genre! It's an exhilarating thriller with an intelligently engaging script, adrenalin-rushing action footage, solid performances from a great cast and a tense atmosphere. The other reviewers around here, however, seem to describe "Cross Shot" as an overly talkative and poorly paced effort in the genre, with a muddled script and a severe shortage of action. Am I a biased fan-boy or are the others exaggeratedly skeptical critics (no offense guys)? The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It's certainly not the greatest of the Italian "Poliziotesschi" movies of the 70s, but Stelvio Massi adds an original new angle, namely that the typically tough & unorthodox copper receives opposition from a profoundly liberal newspaper editor.
Following a heist gone wrong, young thug Antonio Blasi shoots a police officer and unknowingly carjacks a ride that belongs to a mafia boss. The ill-tempered commissioner Jacovella (the almighty Saxon) doesn't have a clue why the mafia also pursues Blasi, but apparently the car contained a briefcase with enough evidence to put the blind Don Ragusa (J. Lee Cob in his final role) behind bars for a long time. Due to Maselli's left-wing newspaper influencing the public opinion, Jacovella cannot simply hunt down and punish Blasi like he would prefer. Saxon is stellar in the role of embittered cop, usually depicted by Maurizio Merli. "Cross Shot" definitely isn't the wildest and most violent Poliziotesschi out there, but several moments are still extremely brutal and unforgettably violent, most notably the horrendous fate of a poor woman who's taken hostage and eventually thrown out of a car.
