Speaking of the Devil (1991)

Best movie ever!

As Good As It Gets

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Enjoyable rental for longtime Bud Spencer enthusiasts , but only for Carlo Perdesoli fans . Sympathetic and rogue Bull Webster (Bud Spencer) is a taxi driver with some work problems on his hands : the Spider Corporation , a huge financial holding company , has decided to buy out his taxi co-operative in order to make it go bankrupt and purchase its terrains at a low cost . Bull is almost driven to desperation by his pregnant daughter and kidnapped wife (Madden) , but then he finds the help an Angel , Victor (Thierry Lhermitte) , sent by Holy Brother (Jean Sorel) , as well as a winning ticket in his pocket to a lottery with the biggest prize of all time : $150 million! . With money like that , he can afford to make his contenders spoil his scheme , but then the valuable ticket is missing and Bull is looking relentlessly for his coat . But at this point , Bull's future starts to interest those responsible for the destiny of human affairs : The appearance of a nasty but beautiful demon (Carl Alt) sent by Lucifer (Ian Bannen) from Inferno and a likable Angel from heaven , these roles in earthly happenings create a bemusing mess . A light , plain and supernatural comedy that joins again Spencer/Carlo Perdesoli and director Barboni . It displays a fantasy plot in which Heaven and Hell send an Angel called Victor : Thierry Lhermitte and a Devil called Verónica : gorgeous Carol Alt to tempt Bud Spencer into evil or to convince him to do good . The simple story and the acting are up to Spencer standard , but lacks the punch and style from precedent and intimate films . It deals with a maze of situations that are funny , amusing , disconcerting , full of action , including lots of car chases and automobile crashes . Storyline is a little bit ridiculous but has its enjoyable moments here and there . It boasts a fine support cast as Carol Alt , Thierry Lhermitte , Ian Bannen , Jean Sorel and brief appearance from Riccardo Pizzuti , ordinary in Hill/Spencer movies . As always , Spencer will confront enemies by means of continuous struggles without blood . The fights are with no violence and predominates comedy and parody , the choreographic quarrels are slights and clean , along with cars crashes and the drivers flying to each others cars . Bud Spencer is nice as a corpulent , bouncing and grumpy Cab man but with good heart . Bud , the popular Latin movie actor who starred in innumerable spaghetti Westerns and action-packed potboilers during the 1960s and '70s, was born Carlo Pedersoli (1929) in Naples. He was the first Italian to swim the 100 meter freestyle and competed as a swimmer at the Olympic games . He appeared as a member of the Praetorian Guard in his first movie , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's epic "Quo Vadis" in 1951 . He changed his screen name to "Bud Spencer" in 1967, as a homage to Spencer Tracy and to the American beer Budweiser . Teaming up with fellow Italian Terence Hill, the two made such international successes as I Quattro dell'Ave Maria (1968) by Colizzi . Their ¨Trinity and Bambino¨ dual outings made both stars famous , particularly in Europe . In all, Spencer made 18 movies with Hill . After appearing in ¨Crazy plane¨ (1972) and owned an air transport company , Mistral Air , which he founded in the 80s . After 1983 , Spencer's movie career slowed down , though he did have a big success in the early 1990s with the TV action-drama ¨Extralarge¨ . The picture was realized twenty years later the famous Hill/Spencer movies , however this recent version was a flop because of ¨Trinity¨ time had passed . Lousy and horrible musical score composed by synthesizer . Very bad cinematography Alfio Contini , a perfect remastering being extremely necessary because of the film-copy is worn-out.The motion picture was produced by the known Silvio Berlusconi and middlingly directed by E B Clucher . He began operating as a cameraman , and in 1961 became director of photography with the film ¨Rómulo and Remo¨, following : ¨Son of Spartacus¨, ¨Gidget Goes to Rome¨, ¨Il Monaco Di Monza¨ , ¨Django¨ , "Django, Prepare a Coffin" , ¨Massacre at Grand Canyon¨, and many others . At the same time he began to work as a screenwriter . The passage to the director , with the pseudonym of E.B. Clucher -Clucher was the grandmother's last name- came in 1970 with a "traditional" Western , ¨Ciakmull¨ that was not very successful . In the same year he directed the cult-movie ¨A man Called Trinity¨ with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer and Barboni conducted the follow-up in 1971 ¨Trinity is still my name¨ or ¨They continued to call it Trinity¨ and subsequently , many years later , ¨Troublemakers¨ . Among the keys to success there is certainly the irony brought to the rigid western and cold genre . So after the first and second film with Triniti/Bambino , Barboni went on filmmaking , which will also be huge commercial successes with other Hill/Spencer vehicles as "Man of the East" , ¨Crime Busters¨, ¨Renegado Jim¨ , "Go for It" who also wrote , along with Marco Barboni, the subject and the screenplay . The success of these films went beyond any expectation , resulting in one of the greatest collections of the time . If you are a fan of the 1972/1973 Trinity and other Hill/Spencer movies , you will enjoy this later release as a sort of beloved return . Although , if you have no history with the originals , I highly recommend you pick up the Trinity movies first . The film provided a nostalgic and familiar return to the agreeable and beloved Spencer role and is only for the hardcore fans .