Un drôle de flic

consider myself a snobbish shaman when it comes to filmy knowledge. When I speak on motion pictures, the words flow from my body as if medicines and elixirs intoxicated me. Be it the opus Zapped! or the classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space, I pride myself on bringing to illumination the forgotten masterpieces of cinema. I bark obscure film knowledge. That is why I am praising the likes of one of the top ten most overlooked films of the early 1980s: Super Fuzz aka Super Snooper aka Poliziotto superpiù.

This comedy, live action, sci-fi/fantasy and action/adventure film even made it to my coveted top 25 Movie Moments list:

19.) The super powers of Officer Dave Speed…Dave becomes able to move objects with the mind force, discover mysterious crimes, jump with no problem from a skyscraper and blow a massively huge bubble from one piece of gum to save he and his friends from a sunken ship. Like most heroes, there is a weakness…the color red. (Super Fuzz, 1980)

This film was a force on late night HBO during my hazy childhood. It played everyday and night. I recorded it on VHS and watched it religiously along with the above-mentioned Zapped!

Super Fuzz was a superhero like no other. Behold his powers! He makes all the people in the Orange Bowl (tens of thousands of people!) disappear into the unknown reaches of time and space with but a thought! The physics and theories behind these mind force powers have serious implications and are staggering. I only aspire to have such mind force powers.

I recently acquired a mint condition vinyl recording of the film's catchy and amazingly plentiful disco theme song 'Super Snooper' by The Oceans:

'He's a super-snooper, Really super-trooper!'

That Ernest Borgnine made the film even better as Sgt. Willy Dunlop.

It is mandatory viewing for any serious student of film. 'Super, Super!'

Cast:

Terence Hill as Dave Speed, Ernest Borgnine as Sgt. Willy Dunlop, Joanne Dru as Rosy Labouche, Marc Lawrence as Torpedo, Julie Gordon as Evelyn

Sergio Corbucci directed Super Fuzz.

Others have covered the plot here. I'll try to give you an idea of why I think you should or should not watch this baby. Like many others here, I first saw this movie on HBO in 1982 as a six or seven year-old. The one-quarter of us in my first-grade class who had HBO at that time all loved this movie. I remember playing Super Fuzz myself and running around the house until I saw the color red - then I'd slow down and fall to the ground or take a dive into our big couch. When we were on first grade recess we used to stand in a circle of three and re-enact the "You try to slap him, but you duck real fast. Now you try to slip him, but you try to slap him and you try to duck..." etc. Meanwhile, Dave Speed (what a true action hero name!) is eating the flowers while the original soundtrack playing in the background resembles the music from the Candyland commercials on TV! Holy friggin' crap, some mad genius wrote this. He's eating the flowers!!!! I loved this movie. And as it was an afternoon staple of the HBO line-up at the time, I must have seen it 15 times. When I was about 13 this movie came on late-night TV after I hadn't seen it for about six years. I remembered this film as a pure gem and stayed up to watch it. But seeing it again at the beginning of my adolescence (and it being around 1988 now) I found it to the worst piece of crap I'd ever wasted my sweet time on. I wished I was back at my grandfather's funeral, it was so painful to sit through. To think that I once enjoyed this film made me almost hate who'd I'd been when I was 7. Now in my late 20s my opinion has softened. I even enjoy this film now. The "super super" early 80's synthesized voices in the background are hokey and fun. The plot is light, enjoyable and not that important. They don't make 'em like this anymore, and you ought to know that going in. A child today seeing this may scoff at the special effects. Effects? I think it was all just camera tricks. I'm not sure how to rate this one from 1 to 10. I'm not even sure if some of the scenes I laugh at were intended to be funny in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way or not. Like the clothing of three "thugs". But if you are a fan of early 80s cheese, and particularly if you were a kid in the early 80s, then check this one out - if you can find it!

Worth watching for the dubbing, acting, music, and possibly the most hilarious special effects you will ever see. Is it pure comedy, or is it ALL just terrible? You'll have fun deciding.

I especially liked the "underwater" scene where the sweat was beading off Ernest Borgnine's forehead as he floated to the surface with Super Fuzz on the giant bubble. Now that's comedy. Enjoy!

I bought this movie for a buddy, we were both kids when we watched this film originally. so of course I had to watch it again.

I had mostly forgotten it until the scene -- Dave speed can't shoot an alligator, so holds his gun into the air and shoots (I guess to scare the alligator). He shoots a Nuclear missile (which happened to be flying past), which then explodes giving him his super powers--- later...

Next he has figured out he has powers--he makes a truck roll backwards, using his new telekinetic powers, then (and the facial expressions are great for a laugh) he uses his powers to push it sideways into a parallel parking spot. (Background singers) "Super Superrrr!!!" Hilarious back then--even funnier now though, retrospectively.

I remember first watching this film way back when it was in heavy rotation on HBO in the early 80s. This was long before I discovered Terence Hill's Spaghetti Westerns like My Name Is Nobody and his Trinity films. I certainly didn't know anything about Sergio Corbucci's impressive body of work. What I did know was that Terence Hill and Ernest Borgnine made for a lot of laughs. The film was never meant to be taken seriously. That should be obvious from the title alone. It's a parody. It's slapstick. It's fun.

If you're not into that sort of thing you probably won't like the film. Of course, if you're not into that sort of thing I don't know why you'd be watching a film called Super Fuzz to begin with.

If you have a sense of humor and enjoy films like Police Academy and Trinity, you'll probably enjoy Super Fuzz.