Go for It

Nati con la camicia; comedy, Italy / USA, 1983; D: E.B. Clucher, S: Bud Spencer, Terence Hill, David Huddleston, Faith Minton, Buffy Dee

After a misunderstanding with the police, who caught them driving a truck without any license, two clumsy guys, Rosco and Doug, enter a plane for Miami on the run by pretending to be Steinberg and Mason, whose names they only heard being spoken out on the loudspeaker. However, once in Miami, they find out Steinberg and Mason are CIA spies and thus have to take on their aliases, as well as their assignment: to spy on the dubious crime king K1. He captures them on his yacht and tells them about his plan: to bomb a space rocket in order to cause an explosion, rule the world and erase any knowledge of numbers. Rosco and Doug stop him and get praise from their boss.

The 14th Bud Spencer-Terence Hill film out of 17 in total, "Go for It" barely misses a good grade, yet it is still arguably the best comedy of the duo in their weakest phase, the 80s and 90s. By extending their repertoire to a James Bond spoof, director Enzo Barbani achieved a comedy just slightly better than similar, misguided attempts of the latter, like "Spy Hard", "Casino Royale" and "Johnny English", yet, despite some good ideas (a blind cook with a stick carrying a set of glasses through the hotel kitchen), "Go for It" needed at least two or three more good jokes to edge its way into a better grade, since the second half loses its inspiration and turns into an empty, standard plot on auto-pilot. Spencer and Hill still have chemistry, though. Despite a mild finale, the first half of the movie is truly fun, especially in one great joke at the start, when Hill and Spencer are caught on the highway by two police officers for driving a truck without a license: both of them raise their hands in the air, but suddenly Hill opens his mouth and raises his hands even further in the air, as high as possible. The two police officers, and even Spencer, look at him, puzzled. However, as a ventriloquist, Hill distorts his voice to make them believe as if two gangsters raised a gun behind the police officers' back, causing them now to drop their guns and raise their hands in the air themselves. Spencer cannot believe the trick worked, but decides to play along. At that moment, an older man and his wife pass by with their car, stop and look in awe as two truck drivers and two police officers are all holding their hands in the air, labeling them all as wackos. That sequence really brought back memories of some of the best Spencer-Hill comedies.

Grade:+