Flatfoot in Egypt (1980) User Reviews

Entertaining and funny Italian film with the bouncing Spencer as Rizzo forming an amusing trio along with Caputo and Bodo

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 2 October 2011]

New entry with Bud Spencer as Police Comissioner Rizzo who this time travels to Egypt . Fun comedy set on Naples and a far country as Egypt for Bud Spencer enthusiasts , repeating his usual role as Commissario helped by his underling Caputo ( Enzo Cannavale) and dealing with kidnappings and oil smuggling . They resolve an abducting of the nephew (Cinzia Monreal) a powerful magnate (Robert Loggia) and carried out by some criminals . Rizzo (Bud Spencer or Carlo Perdesoli) is a corpulent and bouncing cop from Napoles who undertakes numerous dangers and adventures . Police Commissioner Rizzo, or Bigfoot (Piedone by nickname) and Marshal Caputo go to Egypt and look for Professor Cerullo (Leopoldo Trieste), who is missing . The scientific has discovered an insect that can smell where petrol is and lots of greed men are interested in it. Rizzo nicknamed Flatfoot travels to big city of El Cairo along with Bodo ( the likable Zulu little Bambino ) and his partner (Enzo Cannavale ) who poses as Arab . Later on , they go to Egyptian desert where meet Assan (Angelo Infanti) , facing off risks, and several adventures.

This is a good entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer fans , as he's delightful . It packs action, fist-play, slapdash, humor with tongue and cheek and is quite amusing . This entertaining , engaging movie is crammed of fist-fights, punches , kicks, overwhelming stunt-work and lots of humor . Bud Spencer is top-notch as one army man taking on a group of bandits and as always he makes his own stunts with comic touches , as usual . This release has some cool and several hilarious moments, though the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer duo films are better . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions ,it's frankly delicious. The movie displays innumerable laughters , jokes and slapstick . The picture is well starred by Bud Spencer . 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. Spencer achieved his greatest hit in spaghetti Westerns lensed for a global audience. Teaming up with fellow Italian Terence Hill, the two made such international successes as I quattro dell'Ave Maria (1968) and "They Call Me Trinity" . Their dual outings made both stars famous, particularly in Europe. In all, Spencer made 18 movies with Hill . Later on , he became a jet airplane and helicopter pilot after appearing in ¨Crazy plane¨ (1972) and owned an air transport company, Mistral Air, which he founded in 1984. However, he terminated his business interest in Mistral and entered the children's clothing industry. 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". A man of many talents, Bud wrote texts and plots for some of his films . He also has registered several royalties.

The movie contains a catching musical score with noisy songs by Guido and Mauricio De Angelis(Spaghetti Western habitual) and composed by synthesizer, as always . Colorful cinematography who reflects splendidly the Egyptian outdoors , though is necessary a nice remastering . The motion picture is professionally directed by Steno, Stefano Vanzina(father of Carlo Vanzina). He wrote and directed in the 60s Toto vehicles (Toto vs the four, Two colonels) ; Walter Chiari and Raimondo Vianello shows (Heroes of the West, Twins from Texas). In the 70s and 80s directed Bud Spencer movies about Flatfoot or Rizzo, also called Piedone, such as, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Egypt and Banana Joe , among others. And in the 80s directed TV series , the Professore Jack Clementi, again with Bud Spencer. Rating : Acceptable and passable , though only for Bud Spencer fans

Same quality as the ones before

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 20 January 2021]

"Piedone d'Egitto" or "Plattfuß am Nil" or "Flatfoot in Egypt" is an Italian, mostly Italian-language film from 1980, so this one just had its 40th anniversary and the half-centennial is not even a decade away anymore, probably considerably less depending on when you show up here to read this review of mine. This film is of course part of a quadrology of films in which Bud Spencer plays Inspector Rizzo. The first of these films was from 1973 and this, the final installment, is from seven years later. In the thirs film, Spencer's Rizzo was already in Africa, so they had to some up with a different title because he stays on the continent, but moves up north where the locals have lighter skin, so it does not feel too much of a copy of the third film You also see Egypt's trademark sights on the photo here in the background. I am of course talking about the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The former are not featured too much in here, but there is a funny comment on the Sphinx from Rizzo on one occasion here referring to her missing nose. Almost had a touch of Obelix there. The proportions fit as well. But it was not really what he said, but the words he used that made it one of the funniest moment. Like he called the nose a cucumber I think. It's not too funny when I say it now, but with Spencer's voice, it was pretty hilarious. Of course, I was watching the German version again. I read that even in the Italian originals Spencer got dubbed pretty frequently, but in this film here, for once, you can actually hear his real voice. Interesting.

The poster is a lot of fun anyway. The crocodile reference is also interesting because this is where it makes sense that Spencer was a former Olympic swimmer, so he swam to safety from a crocodile in this movie and he did not beat it up as you could guess from the title. And once more his words afterwards are hilarious when we have him make a reference that the crocodile needs to swim faster for such a big breakfast. Hilarious. In a good way. But aren's crocodile fast runners too? Surprised to see it swim away then, but it's okay. This is no biology documentary. Also of course this inclusion is interesting if we take a look at the German title of the Spencer/Hill film "Das Krokodil und sein Nilpferd" from the year before. Also on the poster you can see Enzo Cannavale and Baldwyn Dakile. Namely on the right. Cannavale was in all the Rizzo films as some kind of hopeless sidekick and his character is everybody's punching ball really and this does not change here. Even the little African boy played by Dakile uses the man as a punching ball, like when he talks to him in the end when Cannavale's character is in danger of dying when all this sand is coming down on him. Dakile was also in the previous film of course, this is where they met him. I must say I did not like this character too much honestly. He felt a bit annoying to me all in all. In this film here and in the one before. I preferred the silent Asian kid from the second movie. But that one was even younger I think and we also know nothing about what happened to Dakile in real life. He quit acting quickly.

The director is once again the really prolific Steno and he is also one of the three writers here. Not a given because this was not the case for all Rizzo films. His co-writers have interesting bodies of work here too, especially Bolzoni with his Eastwood film, but also Franciosa, who was probably not too far away from an Oscar nomination for his most known work. By the way, it says here on imdb that this film runs for 95 minutes, but this is certainly not the only version out there because there is at least one other and that is approximately ten minutes longer. As for the rest of the cast, Robert Loggia is a bit of a big name here for sure and I personally am always happy to see Riccardo Pizzuti, a regular on Spencer films. Karl-Otto Alberty is an antagonist here and this German actor is still alive today and in the third Rizzo film, there were so many blond villains and here he is the only one, even if he is not the main antagonist. But he is still alive today at almost 90. Was born the very year Hitler came to power. Man, it's been so long. Another mention goes out to Cinzia Monreale. Don't know anything about her as an actress, but she was pretty stunning and easily could have played a Bond girl too for example. Maybe the most beautiful actress from every Spencer movie or at least a definite contender and if I say so, as somebody who is not into blondes usually, that means something. Speaking of Bond movies, these Rizzo films sometimes feel as if they have an ounce of 007 to them too and I never really recognized this before. You can see that during those days when they got made, Bond was already a really big thing. Even if somebody else was getting the aforementioned potential Bond girl here.

But it is not just that these films are set all around the globe and that the protagonist takes out dangerous villains and sometimes gets a little help from locals, but it is also the bad guys. They slightly feel like villains from the Bond film series at times. This refers to the blond fella I already mentioned, the main antagonist who almost manages to kill Cannavale's character (again this one is really an obstacle, also how he was captured at the carpet store) and also this little dude really reminded me of Hervé Villechaize's character at times. Not just the size, but also his speed and how there was some unintentional(?) comedy to him. But he showed us he is dangerous when he almost kills one character before he can give out important information to Rizzo. This scene in the carpet store was also among the best, even if the dialogues were all over the place and we heard people talking when not even their mouths were moving. Surely a bit strange. But the funniest moment also involves the fella whose life is saved by Rizzo, but already early on in this scene when he tries to kill Rizzo himself, but is knocked out and after taking care of the dwarf, Rizzo takes a look at him again and sees that he is still alive and what he says there right before checking was again really hilarious. Again, impossible to get the comedy through by writing only, but I liked it a lot and laughed quite a bit there. "Let's see if he still has electricity." and then he steps on the dude's foot and that one screams loudly. Well, Flatfoot's feet are really nothing you'd want on your feet, that mush is safe. So it was also how over the top it all felt, for example with the Tarzan scream from the little dude there and that is a crucial difference compared to 007 movies. Also that we almost always hear music to keep things lights. And nobody is really killed. The key story here includes an important scientist who got abducted by the bad guys and this is why Rizzo returns to Africa to free him. Always with him Caputo (kinda fitting he sounds like "kaputt") and little Bodo (isn't this a German name?), who always manages to sneak in still, like when he is hiding and eating all these meatballs. This scientist looked a bit like Einstein to me with his hair and beard, not sure if this was a coincidence.

Anyway, in the previous films, especially the first two, drugs were a key issue in terms of what the bad guys did. In the third as well, even if there was as much focus on stolen diamonds. But with this one here, we only have one very brief drug reference early on, unless I missed out on it. It is really about a specific insect that was able to find petroleum which made it really priceless and this aforementioned scientist is the man who found it and the evil guys, really rich ones too as the main villain seems to be a figure of authority, want the scientist to tell them his secret and make sure they get access to this insect and, as a consequence, also to the oil. Oil has also been a big thing already at the end of the third film, so nothing entirely new here, even if the connection is a bit vague because in that previous movie, it was really more about coincidence. So I already mentioned some of my favorite moments from this film here and there are others too. Overall, I don't think this was a step back in quality, but I am generally not the biggest fan of the Rizzo films. This one here is a good as the previous ones I would say, but if we talk about everything Spencer did, then he has quite a handful better films than those from the Rizzo quadrology. But this one here is definitely not bad or anything. No hesitation for me in giving it a positive recommendation too. Scenes like the one with the snake and the music or the one inside the carpet store and several others make this a rewarding watch as well. It could even be my favorite from the series. The fun component is there too, especially when Buddy once again takes care of the disguised locals (some of them are with the bad guy) and their swords and knives can't save them. Most of the time, his fists are enough, but here and there he also picks up a wooden table to make thinks more entertaining. I suggest you go for the watch here.

One of Bud Spencer's duller movies

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 27 May 2009]

As much as I like Bud Spencer, I can't really recommend this one. It feels as if the writers and the director thought that the "novelty" of seeing the Italian Inspector Rizzo in Egyptian surroundings would be so overwhelming that much more creativity would not really be required. And if you're looking for the trademark Bud Spencer slapstick fight scenes, you'll get them in very limited doses. Most of the time Bud, his boneheaded cop partner, and an African kid who's following them around are wandering from place to place. The climactic multi-person brawl inside the bad guy's palace comes close to redeeming the film, but doesn't quite make it. *1/2 out of 4.

Funny, unforgettable comedy.

[f.gimenez · 10/10 · 23 April 2000]

If somebody thinks that all the Bud Spencer films are the same, he or she may be right, due to the fact that almost all of them contain a lot of blows (with the hand and with the fist)...

But that´s not everything in a film starring Bud Spencer. There´s the plot (yes, there´s a plot indeed!!!), there are the other actors, and there´s the perhaps more important element in a movie, the Music.

In this concrete movie, the music is essential to make it amusing and I would dare to say unforgettable... One must watch this film to understand what I´m saying.

The main title track composed by Guido & Maurizio de Angelis, called "Sphinx" is just great!!.

Well, here´s another movie you should not miss.

Believe me...