Troublemakers

I rented this movie last week. My son and I are true "Terrence and Bud"-fanatics, and I must say that this movie doesn't make anybody in that genre disappointed. Although the dialog and acting is as "bad" as it was 25 years ago, in the Trinity movies", it is still worth watching, just for the h#ll of it. Recomended for any Trinity-fans out there.

The film deals with the famous brothers , Trinity and Bambino , both of whom are two likeable bounty-hunters - Terence Hill and Bud Spencer - who hate each other . Then their mother attempts to reunite them for the celebration of Christmas .

The film is based on a notorious poem , ¨Night before the Christmas¨, whose title was exhibited in many countries and being developed a heart-warming story . As always , they will confront enemies by means of successive struggles without blood , neither gore , nor brutal murders , but entertainment and amusement . The ordinary confrontations are with no violence and predominates comedy and parody , the choreographic fights are slightly made and clean . The humor is continuous , laughters are based on physical differences and diverse personalities of the protagonists . Terence Hill plays as a sympathetic and rogue gunslinger with beautiful eyes and fast-weapon . Bud Spencer as a corpulent, bouncing and grumpy man but with a good heart , helping children and poor people and of course his weakness eating beans . Their silly characters have a certain resemblance to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy . Storyline is a little bit ridiculous but it has its enjoyable moments here and there . The picture was realized twenty some years later ¨My name is Trinity ¨ and ¨ Trinity is still my name ¨ by E. B. Clucher that obtained too much successes , however this recent version was a flop because of Trinity and Bambino time had passed . Supposed to be the third part but due to copyright problems it couldn't be and is deemed an unofficial sequel. The film provided a nostalgic and familiar reunion of the agreeable pair and is only for their hardcore fans . It contains atmospheric and lively musical score by the Italian musician Pino Donaggio. The motion picture was regularly directed by Terence Hill who also directed and interpreted ¨Lucky Luke¨ in similar approaching to this one. Rating : 5.5/10, passable and acceptable, but inferior than two previous entries.

It had been 9 years since Bud and Terence had done a movie together and I'd viewed every single one of them by the end of the 80s. I figured we'd never see anymore. However one day while looking through the new releases at the video shop I got a wonderful surprise. A new Bud and Terence movie! Woohoo!

It was a good laugh and wonderful to see the two of them back together again, although even Hill (in his 50s) was getting a little too old to do fight scenes. In one fight, Spencer, who was now in his mid 60s even got to watch Hill from a distance rather than get involved himself.

It was definitely not going to be a revival. In fact it was done as a 25th anniversary special for "They call me Trinity" and only intended to be a one off reunion. It was even supposed to be the third in the Trinity series, but they couldn't get the rights to use the Trinity and Bambino characters, so they gave the characters different names and even different backgrounds.

This was truly the final act for these two as a team. There was never to be another Bud and Terence Movie ever again. RIP Bud.

The story and the acting are up to the Trinity standard, but whose voice did they use for Bud Spencer? Far from the grainy growl supplied in Trinity, the big man sounds like a chipmunk in Troublemakers. Really distracting.

If you are a fan of the 1972/1973 Trinity movies, you will enjoy this later release as a sort of bittersweet reunion of the two actors in a similar western. If you have no history with the originals, I highly recommend you pick up the Trinity movies first. The Troublemakers is very hard to find in the US but can usually be found on ebay (VHS). I only wish they had done My Name is Nobody with Bud Spencer instead of Henry Fonda-- that's how essential Bud Spencer is to the team.

Terence Hill, who also directed, and Bud Spenser are both in fine form in "The Fight Before Christmas" (that's the title under which I saw this movie). The movie looks great and has a good, if not so original, story. Hill and Spenser's supporting cast has quite a few familiar faces in it. You can't beat Ruth Buzzi as the boys mother. My only gripe against "The Fight Before Christmas" has to with its length. It's too long by about twenty minutes. Closing in on two hours is way too long for a silly movie like this. Even though this a silly movie, I laughed quite a few times. (I saw this movie on Youtube.)