Salut l'ami, adieu le trésor

This is pure escapist slapstick comedy. Don't try to find any hidden meaning in the simple plot. There isn't any. Terence Hill, in hock to gangsters, is given a map which purports to show the location of a hidden treasure on the mysterious island of Bongo Bongo. He stows away on a small motorsailer captained by bearlike Bud Spencer which is leaving on a circumnavigation. Despite the fact that the boat is only 30 feet long, the two blundering mutually antagonistic Hill and Spencer manage to keep out of each others way until well into the voyage. The stowaway scenes are the comedic highlight of the movie. The rest is slapstick bluster. The point of departure is obviously Miami, Florida but Bongo Bongo is located in the South Seas. Hill manages to rig the compass so that the boat heads for the island instead of on its intended course. During a tussle both fall overboard and swim for the island, a tropic paradise inhabited by natives who behave like the cast from a 1920s Harlem musical. The island is guarded by a Japanese WW2 soldier unaware that the war is long over. He fires shots randomly in all directions narrowly missing both protagonists. Naturally the treasure is hidden in his fort. Hill and Spencer demolish the fort and most of the other structures on the island with the help of an abandoned WW2 Japanese tank. At this point the Japanese soldier reveals a remarkable talent for English music hall comedy and the three become allies. Periodically the island is visited by slave traders and the gangsters who, having found a duplicate map, are also looking for the treasure. Like Gilligan's Island, everyone except Hill and Spencer seem to come and go as they please. Each visit results in a slapstick melee in which Hill and Spencer are uniformly victorious, performing Jackie Chan feats of derring do. The escape from the island is anti-climatic except for the surprise ending which is as improbable as the rest of the story.

I must confess that I watched this movie because I own the original boat that was featured in the first half. It is a 1974 Willard Horizon motorsailer and looks just as it did in the film. The previous owner was a technical consultant on the seagoing sequences for the producer. I'm a fan of the boat, not necessarily the actors - but the film is a good family diversion on a rainy night. The kids will love it.

As usual for Hill and Spencer movies, they are two self centered and greedy characters, who basically care only for themselves, but still manage to do the right thing when the time comes.

Hill and Spencer could easily be the modern day equivalent of everymen. The only thing that has them motivated (in any of their movies) is greed for money, because they don't have it and are prepared to do many things to get it (although they would never really cross the border of the law).

In this case there's an old uncle with a treasure map and his nephew (Hill), who doesn't really believe him, but once he gambled away all of the mafia's money, the treasure seems to be the only way out for him. So he hides away on a sailboat as a last possible way to get away from the pursuers. The captain (Spencer) is only doing this trip with the sailboat to get the money from the sponsor Puffin (making a product he hates himself). And after they loose the boat (as usual Hill dragged Spencer in the middle of it all) they have nothing left but the treasure to search for.

As with other similar movies like "Go For It", "Crime Busters", "Double Trouble" or "Odds and Evens" Spencer is a grouchy leave-me-alone character and Hill the happy-go-lucky character. The first half an hour is a way to bring these two everymen in a situation where the slapstick comedy occurs. Although always shallow, the plot is plausible enough to let you settle in it and the opening part of the movie, when they are just getting to the point, is as always the funniest, for it doesn't rely on slaps and punches.

After the landing on the island with the treasure the slapstick comedy gets on the way. So expect punches, kicks, slaps and many hurt bad guys. And as usual there is the reward to be had, so they find the treasure - still they can't get rich off it. It's never that easy, so just like the real modern everyman they are left more or less empty handed in the end.

All in all a very amusing and simple movie, that would fall in the category of upbeat movies that will brighten your day, even though when you really think about it, you'll see it has a lot more to offer the it first seems.

As a Bud Spencer/Terence Hill fan, I always loved to watch these two guys giving a punch for all the bad guys (whose were almost all the same in each movie :)), but this film was the best of their works. All the jokes, the funny characters and scenes (especially the closing sentence) are classic!

The acting is not so strong but in these films it's not really important at all. Spencer and Hill bring their own style, playing each other and tricking, gaging all the time. My only complain is the poor English dub. The Hungarian version is much more witty. Too bad for that.

But don't worry, it's not a big loss. If You like to laugh, but don't care about realism and just want to chill out with a can of beer, this is the movie you must see!

Chocho

The movie is about two funny guys whose path crosses with an accident. They land on a small island and they start searching for a treasure which is probably hidden on that island. The movie is pretty funny and if you like bud&terence movies then you will watch this movie twice. The ending of the movie is sad and funny at the same time. And nothing is more important than a friendship. Eat puffin! It gives you power and holds you awake! you will get what i mean when you watch the movie. Ohh, the music is great "movin, cruisin" from La bionda. It has the taste of the early 80s. You can find it on napsters.

Out from the pile of countless Bud Spencer action movies this is one of the best ones, and it also features Bud's best counterpart Terence Hill. Directly from the theme tune onwards this movie guarantees that you won't be needing any brains to enjoy this one; I didn't even notice that there was any other piece of music playing on during the film. Some people may not like it when a movie is full of comic violence, and even more comic adversaries, but also there is delightfully lot of different sceneries to keep any monotonous feeling away. Funny representation of the Japanese soldier who thinks that the second world war still rages on is something this type of comedy may be best suited for and it therefore is really worth seeing.