This is "Doc West: La sfida", the second Doc West movie (from two) and I think it is the slightly superior one. I think that the story is (just like in the first) not exactly a revelation, but there are funnier moments in here overall for sure. I was entertained nicely here and there and I cannot really say the same about the first film that is five minutes shorter. This one here comes close to the 100-minute mark, stays slightly under. The director is once again Terence Hill himself and here he again is also the lead actor and co-directed with Giulio Base, a man who has not only enjoyed a prolific career in directing, but has even more acting credits to his name, also with the occasional Hollywood movie. Not unimpressive. The writers are not equally famous. One of them worked on a few movies that featured Terence Hill and Bud Spencer and the other two were not rookies when this was made, but not super experienced either and what they did afterwards, especially with one of them, got them a bit famous in Italy, but also only there. Check out their bodies of work if you care. As for the cast, basically everybody from the first Doc West movie returns for this sequel. This makes sense because to me it looks as if the production was pretty much one three-hour film and they released it as two movies, but you can definitely watch them both together. The cliffhanger at the end of the first film feels prominent with the pregnant woman that is not well, but this is really only at the end of said first film. This issue is fixed so quickly in the second film that I was a bit surprised because it felt as if this story could maybe play a role for the entire movie, but the plot takes a whole new direction and we find out basically nothing about this woman and her child except that she is doing well again thanks to some Indian herbs. Yep, they also got in Indian characters here as you see it so often in western films, but these characters really did not have a big impact at all and were gone so quickly and felt only there to show us how close Doc West is with the Indians too and that strangers like the sheriff do not have an easy time dealing with them. So they were only included to display us more Doc West perfection. Not the wisest choice honestly.
Another cringeworthy moment for me was when one character says that now he is treated by the legendary Doc West, so clearly the latter already had a reputation. Quite something if you take into account that said doctor has not worked as a doctor for a long, long time because of the shadows from his past. Now that was a quick rise to stardom. By the way, said character was a journalist, who is attacked by the film's main antagonist. I will get to him a little later, but you can feel really bad for the journalist I guess because first he loses an eye to the bad guy and then he loses his life even when he is murdered in cold blood and pretty much sniped down from his horse. There was nothing really that followed in terms of this character. No investigation or so. That did feel a bit strange. I guess he was only included to show us how evil the bad guy really is. Oh well. In the first film, we had an Italian-looking villain and here we have a character called "The Dutchman", so definitely the main antagonist has different roots this time in terms of his origins. Of course, the antagonist is also interested in the stunning(?) female teacher, but he cannot have her. Only Hill's character can. The main plot is a poker tournament story here and the bad guy wants to win to humiliate Doc West, does not even shy away from abducting said female character and hold her hostage (well, one of his henchmen does) to win the game in the end, but luckily thanks to the young boy from the first film being a (too?) great shooter now and very courageous, the woman is freed and Hill's character of course wins the poker game and the money is taken to build a hospital in the village. They really went all-in in terms of moments here to show us how kind-hearted Hill's character is. Not gonna lie. It all felt a bit gooey to be honest.
The second most-known cast member is once again Paul Sorvino ("Goodfellas"), who died not too long ago and they also included a little (unsuccessful) romance plot for him. The interest there was a woman from his past and the name of the actress is Ornella Muti and that is one that is also somewhat known outside of Italy for sure. Maybe you cannot say immediately what made her famous, what films she starred in, but you will know the name. At least I did. Sounds like music. There, I liked the twist in the end with the sheriff being a professional and doing what he had to do and also the comment from Doc West then that maybe if the sheriff had let her get away with this, then she also would not have loved him for it, but rather seen him as a weakling and further toyed with him. That was good. In general, the poker action here was not particularly good though and just too unrealistic to be honest. With what cards were coming up etc. I said early on that I liked the film in terms of the entertainment and I would agree with that. Sorvino on one occasion almost felt a bit like Bud Spencer in this film when he also gets to show he can hit a punch, but most of all it was about Hill of course. How he deals with a patient's face injury on one occasion was hilarious and like taken from the old Spencer/Hill movies. Also the reaction by the man (victim?) afterwards that he may be healed, but would rather not come back for a routine checkup was funny. And I also liked the romance story of the chubby supporting character who is interested in the young Asian miss and helps her against two brutes when those stand in her way. The dinner scene with her family and how he there eats everything that was meant for all five of them or how many people there were sitting at the table was really hilarious. Also his reaction when he tries to fix things and says he has potatoes in his truck if they still want to eat something. I guess they were still happy that he liked the food, at least they were laughing. With him, not at him. That was a pretty cool character and I am glad he got a bit of a plot here and more screen time. One of the key improvements in comparison to the first movie.
The end is again very similar. Doc West rides off into the desert and prairie and we do not know where he is going, but the young kid that saved the Doc's love interest before that manages to catch up on him and give him a letter that says that a young woman is coming to town, the one he has been sending all this money to because of the guilty conscience he had because of what happened to her mother. So once again, Doc West changes directions and he and his horse return to the film's/films' main location, the town where thanks to him there will soon be a hospital and well, we do not see him return, but his words imply that he is going back once again to meet the teenager that has always been on his mind. This was also not a cliffhanger like the first film, but an ending that implied that there could be more Doc West action coming. I am pretty sure they had that in mind all the time if they even come up with a song about Doc West that we hear during the closing credits of both films. You don't do that if you only plan two films and the other long-running Base/Hill collaboration did not have a western background, so there would have been a crucial difference. It was not meant to be though and now almost 15 years later we can say pretty much for sure that there will be no more Doc West coming. No third chapter. Maybe the ratings for these two films were not good enough. Besides, Hill is now considerably over 80 and he has to look out for his health of course. I hope he lives on for many years to come. Back then, he was 70 when this was made.
Back to this film and the story: He was not training characters to fight like in the first, but was a bit of a mentor again to more than one character. First of all, the boy admires him still of course, especially after the flawless shooting display, but there is also the younger poker player that the Doc is up against in the semi and who he beats of course and he has nothing but encouraging words for him, words that still show us the greatness and the kindness of Doc West at the same time. Honestly, subtlety was never the film's strength. That character, by the way, also got attacked by the Dutchman earlier in an attempt to weaken him, so Doc West can win the game and there will be this big final between the Dutchman and the man of medicine. This was also a bit far-fetched, also the moment then when Doc West says it would be reasonable to assume that it was him himself who attacked the young fella. So yeah, there are weaknesses to this film without a doubt and even if there are some decent moments too, it is a very close call if this should get a positive recommendation. I shall be gentle this time though and give the thumbs-up, also to express my thinking that this is the better film out of the two, even if most others do not share my perception and seem to think that the first film was the slightly superior from this duology. I must still say I am not particularly sad that there is no third or even fourth film. Two is enough and the story is really told to a sufficient extent overall. You can give this one here a chance, but if you don't, then honestly you are not missing out on a lot either. A cautious thumbs-up this would be from my side.
Another cringeworthy moment for me was when one character says that now he is treated by the legendary Doc West, so clearly the latter already had a reputation. Quite something if you take into account that said doctor has not worked as a doctor for a long, long time because of the shadows from his past. Now that was a quick rise to stardom. By the way, said character was a journalist, who is attacked by the film's main antagonist. I will get to him a little later, but you can feel really bad for the journalist I guess because first he loses an eye to the bad guy and then he loses his life even when he is murdered in cold blood and pretty much sniped down from his horse. There was nothing really that followed in terms of this character. No investigation or so. That did feel a bit strange. I guess he was only included to show us how evil the bad guy really is. Oh well. In the first film, we had an Italian-looking villain and here we have a character called "The Dutchman", so definitely the main antagonist has different roots this time in terms of his origins. Of course, the antagonist is also interested in the stunning(?) female teacher, but he cannot have her. Only Hill's character can. The main plot is a poker tournament story here and the bad guy wants to win to humiliate Doc West, does not even shy away from abducting said female character and hold her hostage (well, one of his henchmen does) to win the game in the end, but luckily thanks to the young boy from the first film being a (too?) great shooter now and very courageous, the woman is freed and Hill's character of course wins the poker game and the money is taken to build a hospital in the village. They really went all-in in terms of moments here to show us how kind-hearted Hill's character is. Not gonna lie. It all felt a bit gooey to be honest.
The second most-known cast member is once again Paul Sorvino ("Goodfellas"), who died not too long ago and they also included a little (unsuccessful) romance plot for him. The interest there was a woman from his past and the name of the actress is Ornella Muti and that is one that is also somewhat known outside of Italy for sure. Maybe you cannot say immediately what made her famous, what films she starred in, but you will know the name. At least I did. Sounds like music. There, I liked the twist in the end with the sheriff being a professional and doing what he had to do and also the comment from Doc West then that maybe if the sheriff had let her get away with this, then she also would not have loved him for it, but rather seen him as a weakling and further toyed with him. That was good. In general, the poker action here was not particularly good though and just too unrealistic to be honest. With what cards were coming up etc. I said early on that I liked the film in terms of the entertainment and I would agree with that. Sorvino on one occasion almost felt a bit like Bud Spencer in this film when he also gets to show he can hit a punch, but most of all it was about Hill of course. How he deals with a patient's face injury on one occasion was hilarious and like taken from the old Spencer/Hill movies. Also the reaction by the man (victim?) afterwards that he may be healed, but would rather not come back for a routine checkup was funny. And I also liked the romance story of the chubby supporting character who is interested in the young Asian miss and helps her against two brutes when those stand in her way. The dinner scene with her family and how he there eats everything that was meant for all five of them or how many people there were sitting at the table was really hilarious. Also his reaction when he tries to fix things and says he has potatoes in his truck if they still want to eat something. I guess they were still happy that he liked the food, at least they were laughing. With him, not at him. That was a pretty cool character and I am glad he got a bit of a plot here and more screen time. One of the key improvements in comparison to the first movie.
The end is again very similar. Doc West rides off into the desert and prairie and we do not know where he is going, but the young kid that saved the Doc's love interest before that manages to catch up on him and give him a letter that says that a young woman is coming to town, the one he has been sending all this money to because of the guilty conscience he had because of what happened to her mother. So once again, Doc West changes directions and he and his horse return to the film's/films' main location, the town where thanks to him there will soon be a hospital and well, we do not see him return, but his words imply that he is going back once again to meet the teenager that has always been on his mind. This was also not a cliffhanger like the first film, but an ending that implied that there could be more Doc West action coming. I am pretty sure they had that in mind all the time if they even come up with a song about Doc West that we hear during the closing credits of both films. You don't do that if you only plan two films and the other long-running Base/Hill collaboration did not have a western background, so there would have been a crucial difference. It was not meant to be though and now almost 15 years later we can say pretty much for sure that there will be no more Doc West coming. No third chapter. Maybe the ratings for these two films were not good enough. Besides, Hill is now considerably over 80 and he has to look out for his health of course. I hope he lives on for many years to come. Back then, he was 70 when this was made.
Back to this film and the story: He was not training characters to fight like in the first, but was a bit of a mentor again to more than one character. First of all, the boy admires him still of course, especially after the flawless shooting display, but there is also the younger poker player that the Doc is up against in the semi and who he beats of course and he has nothing but encouraging words for him, words that still show us the greatness and the kindness of Doc West at the same time. Honestly, subtlety was never the film's strength. That character, by the way, also got attacked by the Dutchman earlier in an attempt to weaken him, so Doc West can win the game and there will be this big final between the Dutchman and the man of medicine. This was also a bit far-fetched, also the moment then when Doc West says it would be reasonable to assume that it was him himself who attacked the young fella. So yeah, there are weaknesses to this film without a doubt and even if there are some decent moments too, it is a very close call if this should get a positive recommendation. I shall be gentle this time though and give the thumbs-up, also to express my thinking that this is the better film out of the two, even if most others do not share my perception and seem to think that the first film was the slightly superior from this duology. I must still say I am not particularly sad that there is no third or even fourth film. Two is enough and the story is really told to a sufficient extent overall. You can give this one here a chance, but if you don't, then honestly you are not missing out on a lot either. A cautious thumbs-up this would be from my side.