Superfuzz

Cool movie poster.

Today we return to the more classic aproach our blog has: Cult movies. Our target will be to review a long list of films starred by the golden italian couple: Terence Hill & Bud Spencer, absolute masters of action, comedy and everything in between. How can I describe these guys without stating I fucking love their movies? I don't know, it beats me. I remember being a kid when all of their fantastic movies were being released worldwide and connoissuers were milking tons of fun out of these great, great guys.

I was introduced to these guys a little later, since I was born in 1981 it was quite impossible for me to check this flicks in a movie theater. However, my dad was a Terence Hill/Bud Spencer enthusiast, so naturally he got me into their stuff at quite an early stage in my life. Back then when I was around the 8 to 10 years old age range, local TV had a couple of wonderful programs that were taking cult movies to the masses, so, I had the chance of watching most of their films in the idiot box. In those days I was ok with censorship, in fact I didn't even think about it. Today, of course, I long to watch movies in its entirety, as they were meant to be. I guess it is compelling for me, to thank once more my awesome dad for leading me into a world of cult movies that were unknown to me. 

I eat light.

Not your average Coppers Couple.

You scum!

Anyways, let's get down to business  I do know this blog ain't my diary sonny.What can we expect from this Italian exploitation gem? Dave Speed, an ex-cop, is in the midst of his 4th death penalty attempt. They have tried to gas, hang and shoot him. We then go into a flashback to how Dave is in his current predicament.

Dave (played by our master Mr.Terence Hill) is a freshly graduated cadet on his first assignment. This happens to be a Hulk-like origin story, where Dave gets caught in some sort of "radioactive test". Apparently the detonation of red plutonium occurs on Indian Reservatations. Thats how witty keeps us down. Everyone assumes Dave is dead and his superior ,Sgt. Willy Dunlop, (played by the ever prolific Ernest Borgnine) is demoted to traffic cop because of it. Dunlop is old (should have been retired years ago), overweight, very excitable, tends to yell and does not easily believe his own senses. Borgnine's acting ability tends to run the gamut from horribly bad to good. His performance as Willy Dunlop is painful. There should be some rules about using Borgnine as a torture device. It should be outlawed. It gets even worse when Borgnine gets cheerfully chipper.

Apparently the test/accident has bestowed Dave with what appears to be limitless powers. Powers such as :

invulnerability, telekinesis , "spider sense" like intuition, x-ray vision, water walking, faster than a speeding car, walk on walls, fixing horse races, pool sharking, racketeering, superior lung capacity, hypnotic suggestion/mind control.

Weaknesses : the color red.

Hi, little fella.

You see I'm a super cop.

I missed Bud Spencer in this flick.

He uses his newly found powers to solve crimes, to the surprise and confusion of Sgt. Dunlop. Dunlop seems to like the results of all this success, but doesn't like the explanation of why and how. Dave sets his sights on organized crime run by Torpedo (played by Marc Lawrence). Torpedo is running a counterfeit money operation, with Dunlop's favorite starlet, Rosy Labouche. Torpedo tries and frames Dave for the death of Borgnine. That is the reason he's on death row.

Exploitation is definitely the genre to classify this movie, cause it doesn't really deliver what is promised in the movie poster. The whole vibe you get from the movie has nothing to do with The Dark Knight kind of mood, instead it is quite campy, just like the sixties Batman TV show...So, the movie is kind of a superhero parody. The problem is that these elements make the movie look & feel silly at times, being campy is one thing, but being silly is a completely different thing. Why am I stating this? well, because I know there are all sorts of movie enthusiasts, not just the cult movie lovers. Terence Hill & Bud Spencer movies were always meant to be PG rated exploitation flicks, they neither had extreme violence, moral issues  nor nudity and sex scenes. Everything these guys did was entertaining all audiences. Perhaps back then some, just some scenes were to be considered as not meant for all audiences, but according to today's standards Disney could definitely distribute Terence Hill & Bud Spencer movies. 

Frozen.

Italian Fashion Style.

Overall,  this movie is definitely not for the faint of heart or the newly indoctrinated to the Italian exploitation genre or the exploitation genre in general, however I recommend it to everyone that knows  a good movie is the one that entertains, and Superfuzz definitely entertains despite its minor flaws.