Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

At least those riot control force policemen who are daily "cleansing" stadiums from Ultras, public demonstrations, evictions etc - as we see in this realistic Italian film. It seems that the European Union is so afraid on potential police violence and brutality that member state police units have very limited rights even if they are attacked or mocked (unlike in the U.S., for example). The result is aggregated tensions, injured policemen, problems at home, attitude change and other elements the police could/should be deprived of.The plot is somewhat documentary, resulting in a kind of aridity, fast frame interlace and hectic course of events. The cast seems strong as well, although all the actors apart from Pierfrancesco Favino (as Cobra) were unfamiliar to me. I can't say I enjoyed the film, but I liked it more than similar films made e.g. in Latin America where strong visibility of poverty and violence is too tough to follow. And finally, I am no fan of football, thus I would have a plain solution to the stadium fights...

Great title for the book and subsequent film . Is the film entertaining?. No, not in the least. Yes these guys are tough - always impartial and honest , of course not and yet as of many police forces world wide are used by politicians like a football. So the scene is set, a young rookie for ostensibly financial reasons joins an experienced hard core riot squad. Then virtually the whole movie gets bogged down in the protagonists domestic lives and all the trials and tribulations that entails. What a snooze fest. Isn't that what soap operas are for.I personally don't feel the need to launch into some half baked political diatribe but clearly racial disharmony is a thread binding the film together with a couple of scenes attempting feebly to mimic American History X. ACAB is over-hyped and boring. Criminal.

It's always a bad assumption to characterize a group of people and make them what you think they are. Or what maybe a lot of them are doing. This issue gets handled head on here and it doesn't take any prisoners. The movie is made for you to think (especially if you're Italian or have followed some of the things that went down in that country) about incidents. Like the one depicted in another movie (Diaz: Don't clean up this blood). It's only a small fraction in this movie here, but that issue is spoken of too.So while you might have a pre-arranged picture that suits the title of the movie, there is more going on. Of course the movie would not be authentic if it didn't involve said cops. But the question always remains, why it came to that fact (for some of them). If you're open minded this might appeal to you and you might see that there are some differences

The movie was an excellent insight of the Italian riot police ("celere"), through the everyday lives of 4 policemen. During the whole movie the tension is always high and it's been for me one of the rare cases where I never, at any point, took the part of the protagonists. Who are, as the title says, literally mean bastards. Despite that, it's a very powerful and emotional movie that reflects how the Italian society has degraded in the last decades (racism, violence, intolerance, corruption, etc)The use of the photography and the music (great soundtrack!) is always well placed, adding more depth to many scenes. The movie is loosely based on the book with the same name, which is a reportage of a journalist based on true stories heard from real policemen.I saw it at the Love & Anarchy movie festival in Helsinki, where the director was present and answered the audience's questions. I strongly disagree about the movie being pro-police or fascist. Actually, it's pretty much the opposite. In fact, it takes an almost perfect neutral point of view, trying to show the bare facts. All the opinions come from the viewer, not from the director. He (Stefano Sollima) was also pointing that out since he didn't want to express his judgment. And by the way, he's politically left oriented but the movie has nevertheless been criticized by all the sides: Police, hooligans, right parties and left parties (meaning that he managed to reach his goal...)