Io sto con gli ippopotami

As with almost all if the BS & TH movies, the plot tells a simple story but it has larger moral and ethical implications. BS & TH always fight for the little guy. They always fight the powerful, abusive, rich and corrupt, when it is not just a plain villain. They always use the necessary violence (and no more) to obtain justice. They do not start the fighting, moreover they seem to avoid it if possible. They always prevail and once doing so, never mantain the power obtained or abuse it. And with this movie, there is a anti-racist, anti-colonial overtone and specifically, they aim for enviroment and animal conservation. Plus its very funny and entertaining.

This is fairly standard Hill/Spencer stuff, except for the fact that Joe Bugner (the former British, Commonwealth, European and Australian Heavyweight champion) plays the part of the villain. The film is worth watching simply for Joe's fantastic acting and South African accent. As expected in Hill/Spencer films, Joe gets beaten up in the end with the usual variety of kitchen utensils and everything ends up happily ever after.

The Hill & Spencer movies were never famous for their brilliant stories, but this one doesn't even make an effort. Plotless, slow-paced, boring and only occasionally amusing, it feels like a film that was made out of obligation, rather than like something that the stars and the filmmakers put their hearts in. At least with its animal-friendly messages you could say it's good for kids, but no - they'll be as bored with it as anyone else. (**)

Plenty of laughs and fight scenes in this one and this is the only one of their movies where Spencer comes across a guy who is nearly as tough as he is.

Hard to deal with seeing wild animals locked up in cages, but I suppose that it's good that Spencer and Hill were on a mission to set them all free. Some of the scenes really did look like animals were being set free for real.

BTW, hippopotami only feature in the first scene. A laughing mechanical one in particular.

GRAU GRAU GRAU!! Love this movie! Only in a Spencer/Hill movie can you see a man eat a lobster whole, comic fight scenes, & a bulldozer jailbreak. This has to be one of the best non-western films the pair has done. They are out to save wildlife from the greed of poachers, The former heavy-weight champ bad guy is terrific. Spencer does a bunch of his fist hammers on the top of the bad guys heads (NEVER gets old to see that!)Hill avoids punches, moves out of the way so they end up punching a fellow bad guy (Also.. NEVER gets old!). Lots of fun in this film, Great comdey that was often duplicated by other filmakers but never done as good as these guys can do it. Track down a copy of this and sit back & enjoy it.