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Why Did You Pick On Me?
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| Year: |
1980
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Director: |
Michele Lupo
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| Stars: |
Bud Spencer, Cary Guffey, Ferruccio Amendola, Claudio Undari, John Bartha, Carlo Reali, Giancarlo Bastianoni, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Paolo Figlia, Lorenzo Fineschi, Clayton Landey, Amedeo Leurini, Enzo Maggio, Lawrence Montaigne
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| Genre: |
Comedy, Action, Science Fiction |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
The U.S. military are very keen to track down a certain child who is not a child at all, but a space alien who arrived on our planet and caused no small degree of havoc once his presence was inadvertantly announced. He is H7-25 (Cary Guffey) and he has teamed up with Sheriff Hall (Bud Spencer) to escape the authorities, though it seems as if they have been caught at last when the army show up at their door. That is until a flying saucer belonging to H7-25's father appears in the sky, amazing the troops and offering the Sheriff and his charge the chance to escape...
The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid was the first movie to feature this dynamic duo, and whether it was asked for or not, director Michele Lupo was serving up another dose of adventure for them both. As with many Spencer movies, these two efforts were very popular with younger viewers who appreciated their straightforward and simple charms, which amounted to lots of slapstick and broad humour, nothing too taxing and with an ideal father figure in Spencer who was someone they could look up to for his strength, humour and gruff kindness. Part of what made them quite sweet was the obvious admiration his little co-star had for the big man.
That co-star forever identified not with these movies, but for Close Encounters of the Third Kind where as a four year old he essayed the role of the kid who was abducted by aliens, presumably the reason he was hired for these two sort of cash-ins on the Steven Spielberg epic, though they were as much part of the longstanding box office potential of Spencer's tough guy with laughs image around the world. Naturally with this star it appeared about fifty percent of the running time was given over to Bud beating people up - beating up only those who deserved it, of course, which included individuals suggesting the writers had seen Every Which Way But Loose and fancied some of that action.
Thus the Sheriff spends a good ten minutes laying into a biker gang, who must take ages getting ready in the morning judging by their elaborate costumes which look inspired as much by The Village People as they were any other movie bikers. The main villains this time around were more the pesky space aliens who turn up to take over Planet Earth, all ten of them, a palefaced bunch sporting shades and matching uniforms who mean to kidnap H7-25, or Charlie as the Sheriff insists he call himself, because the kid is the sole inhabitant of the globe who can stand up to them, what with his magic device which makes reality his every whim. Said device looking like one of those multipurpose remote controls you might have seen.
In the meantime, Hall and Charlie wind up in a new smalltown which has its trouble with keeping law and order, making a very capable Sheriff the ideal occupation for our burly hero as he uses his fists to keep the peace. Taking the peace are a selection of ugly mugs who see his upstanding morality something of a challenge, and the film gets caught up in threads of various troublemakers, all of whom forgiven their misdeeds for the biff-packed finale which sees them put aside their differences and fight off those who would scupper Hall's chances of a quiet life, mostly by taking Charlie away from his guardianship and, er, the whole invading the world gambit. The science fiction aspects are a touch more emphasised this time, though that doesn't stop things descending into a mass brawl well before the end as before; the producers knew what their audience wanted from a Bud Spencer movie, and by crikey they got an ample helping of it here. Music by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (the country theme is less hellishly catchy than the previous one).
Aka: Chissà perché... capitano tutte a me
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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