Perfect cast and a good story

As Good As It Gets

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is the non-fiction back story about the movie Bulldozer with Bud Spencer. I will attempt to ID rumor from fact . In 1977 a group of Italian Soccer and Rugby players formed an American style football sports team. I had heard it was formed by two former American GI's with sportsman drawn from the Milano and Bologna areas. They came to Tirrenia(IT) to play an exhibition game against the Darby Rangers at Camp Darby , a US Army installation close to Livorno ,Italy. Hammered by the experienced Darby Rangers the Italian team suffered many injuries but they would not give up.In 1978 an Italian film crew came to Tirrenia to film the movie with Bud Spencer. I can't say that the writer's intent was to do a story about the above event but I think it is too close for coincidence. The football scenes were shot at a local sports coop in Tirrenia. Many extras were drawn from the local US military community with soldiers that had played in the 1977 game taking leave to allow them to appear. I was on the Darby Ranger team in 1977 but did not play in that game. I recognized many of the GIs in the movie. I played the medic in the locker room scene and I was one in real life also working with the volunteer ambulance Misericordia Livorno.One day on the set when were shooting the football scenes one of the GI's had brought a Frisbee. We had Bud Spencer and many of the cast and crew throwing Frisbee. The director eventually pleaded with us to stop as we were slowing down his schedule. In the first take of the locker room scene Bud Spencer kicked the prop door off it's hinges!It took me many years to find clips of this movie on YouTube. I still haven't seen the full movie.

This time Bud Spencer is a fisherman whose ship crashes with a submarine . While he attempts to make reforms on his boat Spencer competing an arm-wrestling (such as ¨Stallone's Over the top¨) contest with an US Army sergeant (Raimund Harmstorf) . Colonel Martin (Reinhard Koldehoff ) commandant of the HQ ¨Headquarter Camp Durban US Army ¨assigns the sergeant to form the American football team to compete Italians . Then the former player called ¨Bulldozer¨ takes in charge of the training . As Bud trains an Italian botcher team and it all climaxes a Rugby championship between American soldiers and Latinos players . Both of them dressed in white ¨The Rangers¨ and blue ¨the visitors¨. When Spencer goes into the action he turns the score , playing like a Bulldozer.This amusing , engaging movie is crammed of fist-fights, overwhelming stunt-work and lots of humor. Bud Spencer is top notch as one army man confronting a group of American soldiers and as always he makes his own stunts with comic touches , as usual . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frantic fight's sequences make up for it . It's an amusing romp with brawls , including amusing bounds and leaps at a bakery . This is a nice entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer fans , as he's delight . It packs action, fist-play, slapdash, humor with tongue-in-cheek and is quite bemusing . This release has some cool and several hilarious moments such as the continuous fights ; however the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer duo films are better . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions ,it's frankly delicious . The movie displays innumerable laughters , jokes and slapstick . In the picture appears usual secondaries from B Italian series seen in several genres as Spaghetti Western and Peplum as Nello Pazzafini , Fortunato Arena , Giovanni Cianfriglia ,Mike Morris, Roberto and Octaviano Dell'Acqua .Catching and commercial musical score by Guido and Mauricio De Angelis -Spaghetti Western's ordinaries- and composed by synthesizer, as usual . The motion picture written by Marcelo Fondato is middlingly directed by Michele Lupo . This is a passable entertaining juvenile that will appeal to Italian comedy buffs.In the 70s and 80s Bud Spencer starred various movies without Terence Hill , as he made three kind of films : 1ª he performed pictures with a little boy as partner as ¨Banana Joe ¨ , ¨Aladino¨and ¨The Supersheriff¨ ; 2ª about cop named Flatfoot or Rizzo, also called Piedone, such as, ¨Flatfoot , Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Egypt , Flatfoot in Africa¨, furthermore the ¨Extralargo¨ series 3ª about diverse characters as a medieval knight as ¨Soldier of fortune¨ , a swindler as ¨Mr Charleston¨ or a fisherman , ex-player as ¨Bulldozer¨. Rating : Average only for Bud Spencer fans .

Bud Spencer gives a wonderfully warm and charming performance as Bulldozer, an amiable, but ill-tempered former pro football player turned fisherman who's recruited by a wacky gang of street people to whip them into shape for a major all-or-nothing football game against a rival group of American soldiers led by gung-ho jerk Sergeant Kempfer (a deliciously obnoxious portrayal by Raimund Harmstorf). Director Michele Lupo and screenwriters Marcello Fondato and Francesco Scardamaglia concoct a blithely silly and lighthearted comedy that not only delivers the expected amusingly goofy slapstick humor (several wild rough'n'tumble fight scenes in particular are absolutely hilarious), but also a nice small coastal town atmosphere, likable characters, and a truly uplifting story in which Bulldozer gives his misfit team a much-needed sense of self-worth while the team in turn help Bulldozer regain his passion for the game. Spencer easily carries the film on his massive shoulders as the decent and honorable Bulldozer; he receives excellent support from Kempfer, Ottaviano Dell'Aqua as smartaleck Gerry, Marco Stefanelli as lanky klutz Tony, Giovanni Vettorazzo as swift, wily thief Spitz, and Reinhard Kolldehoff as the stern Colonel Martin. Both Franco Di Giacomo's slick cinematography and the bubbly score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis are up to speed. The climactic football game is very funny, gripping and exciting. A hugely enjoyable little hoot.