"Non c'è due senza quattro" is a co-production between Italy and Brazil that came out in 1984, so from briefly before I was born. The language is mostly Italian because of the protagonists' nationality and this does not only refer to those two you see on the photo here on imdb, but also the writer and director. Enzo Barboni and Marco Barboni are father and son and this is not the only film in which they worked together with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, not even the only film in fact where they used pseudonyms when working with these two. Well, the son kept his real last name, but only changed his first name, but daddy Enzo changed his entire name. But yeah, I would say that the son's last name maybe gave them away, but then again, we must remember this is 1984 and it was probably much easier to disguise your identity there to everybody except the cast perhaps because media coverage and surveillance were simply on a completely different level. Today there would be no way for Spielberg, Cameron or Scorsese to make a film and hide his identity. Then again, Barboni is of course no exactly on the same level popularity-wise, which also may have helped him there. There are several running times for this movie, but you can say that it runs for easily over 1.5 hours no matter which version you are watching. And that is way under two hours nonetheless. I think it was a good runnig time for today's showing. Also with Spencer and Hill we know they made many films where the production country included the United States of America and the movie was set there and there were many American actors on board. Here it is basically the same with Brazil. Several South American cast members, but of course at its core, it is never about anybody other than our two heroes. May Bud rest in peace and may Terence still live for a few more years. I simply cannot say anything about the rest of the cast other than the personal perception that April Clough is pretty stunning and it means something when I say that about a blonde. Maybe the one most memorable aspect here is that Hill and Spencer (interesting how the former always gets first credit in their collaborations while Spencer is certainly the bigger star, at least here in Germany) do not only play one character each, but two characters each and this is also pretty much the key reason why I rated this more than three stars out of five. It was something entirely different. The key characters they play are basically the same ones as in all the other movies, but these two very rich fellas could not have been any more different character-wise. I will not go into detail any further here because you should wathc for yourself. Honestly, I also think this film is a great choice to start with if you want to take a look at Spencer and Hill movies and are not too familiar with this duo yet, maybe have not seen anything from them at all. I think the amount of slightly over 9k ratings here on imdb makes it also one of their more seen (maybe not most seen) movies. It did not win a Golden Screen though like many of the others? Well, maybe that explains why this is definitely from the final stages of these two making films together and afterwards they mostly went their own ways again. Hill also focused a bit on directing more, but also kept acting.
Alright, now let me just mention a few individual scenes and moments that I enjoyed. But first of all I want to say that one reason why everybody loves these two here in Germany is that the dubbing is so good. Also the translation and what they say exactly (like verbally). Especially Spencer has a very rough style there, but it is so funny all the time which words he uses and in this film it seems a bit rougher than usual even. Hill may not be on par, but I also like the way he expresses himself. And come on, nobody is on par with Buddy really. I am genuinely curious if the Italien wordings are just as entertaining or if the dubbing actually made these films even better. Maybe the one moment during which I laughed the most was when one minor character acts as if he hypnotized Spencer's character, but with what the latter says eventually, we know it did not work out. So funny. Or also at the very end when there comes this masked intruder and we see it's Clough's character looking like a female Zorro (she is still alive today), which was admittedly a but absurd, but how she has this meltdown then and what she calls Spencer's character is so hilarious. In a good way. Also how Hill's character immediately afterwards uses the exact same phrase was very funny. Then again, the brawl scenes are always epic in these movies, especially when characters walk into places and we see them only from outside and they are punched out right away. That's what I maybe love the most about these scenes and it's these moments that keep those sequences from becoming too repetitive. But let's be honest. They belong to those films and without them, even if they are slightly repetitive here and there, it would absolutely not be the same. Then again, I think all the interaction with the look-alikes were great fun too. This was also in my opinion the case because of how technically competent they looked. Like they mixed it together in a way where it seemed as if there were truly two of them. Each. Not to be taken for granted for a film from the mid80s. I liked the interactions there and also for example those moments when they are not exactly friends with their look-alikes as business is on the list. When it is about how much they get paid at the very end for example and the fighter guys pull through with their interests, but also with how earlier for example they talk about the end of the business deal, but then an unexpected call comes and makes sure they get their money as they are still needed. So the harmless versions of our heroes may only have been physically harmless. But of course they do not get beaten up by the other ones the way the real bad guys get beaten up. Instead, here and there, they even teach them a bit. Like there was one scene in which Spencer's string character deals with a bad guy and he tells Hill's harmless character to hit him and that was pretty funny too how one uses his fist so softly and the other so strongly. It probably felt more credibly this way than the other way around. But the strong Hill gets his fun moments too. One would be when we see the weaker Hill (let's call them that now) is beaten by a few of the crooks and he hides and as they wear the exact same clothes too, they switch characters from one second to the next and the bad guys are quickly in trouble. Oh and by the way, you will not be surprised to find out about Hill's character having some romantic involvement here again. I talked about the lady and her character already earlier. Not a big role honestly, but let's be honest. Women in Spencer/Hill movies never play key characters and what Clough had to work with here (also third credit) was much more than most others got. As for our two heroes and again a reference to the end as I am moving closer to the end of my review, they even ended up with a lot of money at the end and that is unusual. Most of the time, they lose it again. Be it to orphanages, the state or whatever, but here they get lucky. Then again, if we really think about it they were really rich from the very start again, at least in their pompous selves. It was also funny how these rich versions were always so bothered and ashamed of what they brute look-alikes did and how they even made it to the paper etc. So yes many fun moments here. I would also say that the film got better the longer it went. Not that it was poor early on. Absolutely not. The story may have been a bit thin as there are not really any twists to the key plot whatsoever, but somehow they managed to make it work despite the duration not being too short. It was probably the fun individual scenes that contributed nicely enough. Alright, there is a lot more I could write here about specific scenes honestly, but I am getting closer to the character limit, so I will leave it at that for now and anyway you should watch the film and not read all of this without having seen it. Still thanks if you got here until the very end of my review and if you want to talk to me about how you perceived this film, I'd be happy to hear it. You know where to find me. This was certainly one of the final watches for me in terms of my Spencer movie marathon over the last weeks, but it was also one of the very best. Among my top5 films from 1984 now. So much fun (I know I use this word a lot, also in the title of my review, but it's simply the best way to put it) we have here and you absolutely don't want to miss out on all of that. Also a very light movie all along. Highly recommended. Oh and the main theme you can hear very early on is a lot of fun too!
Alright, now let me just mention a few individual scenes and moments that I enjoyed. But first of all I want to say that one reason why everybody loves these two here in Germany is that the dubbing is so good. Also the translation and what they say exactly (like verbally). Especially Spencer has a very rough style there, but it is so funny all the time which words he uses and in this film it seems a bit rougher than usual even. Hill may not be on par, but I also like the way he expresses himself. And come on, nobody is on par with Buddy really. I am genuinely curious if the Italien wordings are just as entertaining or if the dubbing actually made these films even better. Maybe the one moment during which I laughed the most was when one minor character acts as if he hypnotized Spencer's character, but with what the latter says eventually, we know it did not work out. So funny. Or also at the very end when there comes this masked intruder and we see it's Clough's character looking like a female Zorro (she is still alive today), which was admittedly a but absurd, but how she has this meltdown then and what she calls Spencer's character is so hilarious. In a good way. Also how Hill's character immediately afterwards uses the exact same phrase was very funny. Then again, the brawl scenes are always epic in these movies, especially when characters walk into places and we see them only from outside and they are punched out right away. That's what I maybe love the most about these scenes and it's these moments that keep those sequences from becoming too repetitive. But let's be honest. They belong to those films and without them, even if they are slightly repetitive here and there, it would absolutely not be the same. Then again, I think all the interaction with the look-alikes were great fun too. This was also in my opinion the case because of how technically competent they looked. Like they mixed it together in a way where it seemed as if there were truly two of them. Each. Not to be taken for granted for a film from the mid80s. I liked the interactions there and also for example those moments when they are not exactly friends with their look-alikes as business is on the list. When it is about how much they get paid at the very end for example and the fighter guys pull through with their interests, but also with how earlier for example they talk about the end of the business deal, but then an unexpected call comes and makes sure they get their money as they are still needed. So the harmless versions of our heroes may only have been physically harmless. But of course they do not get beaten up by the other ones the way the real bad guys get beaten up. Instead, here and there, they even teach them a bit. Like there was one scene in which Spencer's string character deals with a bad guy and he tells Hill's harmless character to hit him and that was pretty funny too how one uses his fist so softly and the other so strongly. It probably felt more credibly this way than the other way around. But the strong Hill gets his fun moments too. One would be when we see the weaker Hill (let's call them that now) is beaten by a few of the crooks and he hides and as they wear the exact same clothes too, they switch characters from one second to the next and the bad guys are quickly in trouble. Oh and by the way, you will not be surprised to find out about Hill's character having some romantic involvement here again. I talked about the lady and her character already earlier. Not a big role honestly, but let's be honest. Women in Spencer/Hill movies never play key characters and what Clough had to work with here (also third credit) was much more than most others got. As for our two heroes and again a reference to the end as I am moving closer to the end of my review, they even ended up with a lot of money at the end and that is unusual. Most of the time, they lose it again. Be it to orphanages, the state or whatever, but here they get lucky. Then again, if we really think about it they were really rich from the very start again, at least in their pompous selves. It was also funny how these rich versions were always so bothered and ashamed of what they brute look-alikes did and how they even made it to the paper etc. So yes many fun moments here. I would also say that the film got better the longer it went. Not that it was poor early on. Absolutely not. The story may have been a bit thin as there are not really any twists to the key plot whatsoever, but somehow they managed to make it work despite the duration not being too short. It was probably the fun individual scenes that contributed nicely enough. Alright, there is a lot more I could write here about specific scenes honestly, but I am getting closer to the character limit, so I will leave it at that for now and anyway you should watch the film and not read all of this without having seen it. Still thanks if you got here until the very end of my review and if you want to talk to me about how you perceived this film, I'd be happy to hear it. You know where to find me. This was certainly one of the final watches for me in terms of my Spencer movie marathon over the last weeks, but it was also one of the very best. Among my top5 films from 1984 now. So much fun (I know I use this word a lot, also in the title of my review, but it's simply the best way to put it) we have here and you absolutely don't want to miss out on all of that. Also a very light movie all along. Highly recommended. Oh and the main theme you can hear very early on is a lot of fun too!