A sequel to 1983's "Il Tassinaro", once again written, directed by and starring Italy's national treasure Alberto Sordi (sort of an Italian cross between Patrick Macnee and Rodney Dangerfield). This time the cab driver gets into in trouble Rome, New York and Miami. Despite the title, he probably spends the least amount of time in the Big Apple.
Having inadvertently witnessed a mob hitman at work, Pietro Marchetti and his wife Teresa flee to America and spend the Christmas holidays with their son and his girlfriend. We see the whole family go to church and witness the famous balldropping in Times Square, all obviously filmed unscripted on location with hand held camera's. When we finally get on with the story, Captain Favretto (Dom Deluise) needs to question Pietro about the murder and also gets him to drive a cab around NY. The old gag about New York cabby's not speaking English is rendered moot when every single passenger that steps into Marchetti's car seems to be of Italian decent. Even Commandant Lassard from the Police Academy series (wearing an admirals uniform for a change) has no trouble communicating with him.
When the killer reappears, Captain Deluise immediately relocates the Marchetti's to Miami (even though the killer never spotted or recognized them) Apparently Dom is the chief of police in California as well. Now posing as 'Miguel Olivares' from Cuba, Pietro does more sightseeing at the Hollywood Greyhound tracks and the Miami SeaQuarium. He meets up with even more Italian Americans lobbying for the suspicious politician Vassallo, who seems to have something to do with the murder plot. Unfortunately, the insane criminal plot keeps being interrupted by unrelated comedy bits.
If Alberto Sordi was attempting to make his own version of Crocodile Dundee, he was going about it the wrong way, for the misadventures of Pietro and Teresa hold little interest for an international audience. The only car chase in the movie has one stunt in it (and not even a very spectacular one). All the gangsters are easily recognizable as they dress like Al Capone, while three undercover cops who follow Pietro around are disguised as the Village People. A few years later Germany's favourite comedian and TV show host Thomas Gottshalk made a similar attempt at international stardom in "Driving me crazy" (1991) and naturally Dom Deluise co-starred in that as well.
5 out of 10
