"Botte di Natale" or "Die Troublemaker" or "Troublemakers" (and there are so many other alternate titles that I will not mention here, but you know where to find them) is a co-production between Italy, West Germany and the United States from 1994, so this film is already over 25 years old. The title makes it clear already that this is is mostly Italian. The language is almost exclusively Italian, the two protagonists that you see on the photo are Italian too of course. The film was made in America though and the characters are also Americans, so a colorful mix for sure. The director is the man you see on the right on the poster, Mr. Terence Hill (Mario Girotti). Not too unusual because by the 1990s he had already worked on several films behind the camera, also movies in which he played a protagonist. One thing certainly more surprising here is that the person in charge of the screenplay was Jess Hill, son of Terence Hill, and he was in his mid20s only when he worked on the story for this movie. Pretty young and it was his very first of admittedly not too many screenplays. The man you see on the left is Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli) obviously in a trademark scene because him eating beans is something that fits his characters very nicely, not only because of Spencer's impressive size. But if we are talking about the production here, you will also see a son of Spencer in charge as a producer. The other night I watched a movie in which his daughter is featured as an actress. This is not the case here, but with the duo's offspring being part of this project in key positions, it is still a family affair. By the way, the running time here of 107 minutes is maybe not correct. Or maybe it is and there are several versions, but the one I watched today was certainly shorter, maybe minimally over 95 minutes.
If you know a bit about Spencer and Hill, then you will also know that these two started many decades earlier already and you understand that title I chose for this review. They have made many films together before this one and I also think it's been a few years before the most recent one before 1994, so this was a bit of a final gift to the fans. That they reunited once again. Spencer was in his mid60s here and you could see he was older already and looked a bit more gruff than usual, while Hill was in his mid50s (always approximately a decade between them) and his youthful aura from previous films was mostly gone as well, even if he was still the one getting the romance story the way it always was, even if it was really nothing explicit. Kissing is already more than you usually see in these films. The rest of the cast is a bit interesting too, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for not so great reasons. Golden Globe winner Ruth Buzzi is always easy to identify, even if it takes until the very end for her to show up. She is still alive in her 80s now. Kasprik and Haßmann are a duo of German actresses who may be in this film because it's a West German co-production and Spencer/Hill movies always turned out big in Germany. Haßmann I actually recognized, even if she is not really known for anything other than being married for a long time to the considerably older German comedian Otto Waalkes. Kinda surprised to see her in this film. Equally surprised to see Jonathan Tucker giving a child performance here. This was actually his very first role ever. Oh and the aforementioned writer Jess Hill also plays a really minor character in here.
From my rating you can see that I enjoyed this movie for the most part. It is not one of my favorite or least favorite Spencer films I would say, but I think it was pretty nice closure overall. My favorite scene, i.e. the one where I laughed the most, was probably the one in which Spencer's character was about to be executed. Sounds harsh, but with him and Hill it is never that serious, except in their very early films maybe. This was of course also a bit of a spoof scene from an old Eastwood western classic, but seeing Spencer worried there and seeing Hill with his food and really slow until he finally gets the gun and is bothered by the dog was pretty entertaining. Okay, the dog running gag did not do too much for me. The chess destruction scene on several occasions was funnier already. But what i actually wanted to say, the most hilarious moment of them all was when Spencer's size is just too massive and the entire thing that was supposed to kill him could not deal with his weight and that is how he got away because it all crashed down. And it did so as loudly as possible. That was so funny really. I can watch this all the time. So you see already, we have a bit of a western component in here. Or actually more than a bit really. It's a full-on western. This is what the two started their career with, so it was back to the roots. It is also not the only film in which they play brothers, even if there weren't too many. There are many other components here. Just take the fact that we have a child character that is a contender for being the biggest supporting player. I mentioned the famous actor earlier. Spencer has deal with African kids, Asian kids, alien kids and many other young characters and they are pretty much always his friends. So is Tucker's character here. The moment when they save his life after a snake bite is among the most dramatic of the movie, but of course he recovers quickly. Speaking of animals, also nothing unusual that there are some in Spencer/Hill movies. Here we have horses, birds, dogs and maybe a few others I forgot about. I think there was even a rabbit briefly seen here. Very cute.
The antagonist in here actually did seem pretty scary, but it was never too much about him and he was not a defining villain or anything. Reminded me slightly of Eli Wallach I would say. At least physically. The movie lives more through individual scenes than a great plot. Take the one in which the female character has to choose which of the two she gets out of jail and Spencer's character there was a bit glad it wasn't him because this released was connected to a challenge. Or also the scene in which Spencer's character leaves behind Hill's in the desert. Or at least he thinks he does. Of course, Gill always plays characters with an ace left up his sleeve and this is no exception. I still did not understand completly why he let the bad guys get away. Or the eating habits in this film are as gross and at the same time funny as it gets. Lots of burping included, not only from Spencer's character, but also from others, even the little boy. Oh yes and when Spencer's character used his fingers together with Hill's character to count his children. That was pretty funny how he forgot how many kids he fathered already. Maybe I was wrong with my statement early on that Hill's character is the womanizer here. I mean he has to make one child per year happen for ten straight years to close the gap to Spencer's character. You can call that a challenge for sure. The mother will be amazed, especially if it is the same for all the kids. The fight sequences are fun as always too and a nnice tribute that takes us back to the older films with how they were depicted, even if it was just 1v1 fights, even if admittedly most of the time it feels more like 2v0 when Spencer's character (with the biblical name Moses here) takes care of his opposition. The guy who keeps saying he is the best is a great example there. That was funny.
The most memorable fight sequence, however, was the one at the very end during which they really went all-in with the big brawl in their mother's house and where we also understand why there is a Christmas reference in the title. The way this film closes, especially music-wise, also makes it a decent choice for a watch during the holidays. The mother was surprisingly unaffected here, but I guess she knows her two boys. The actress there, Buzzi, was by the way younger than Spencer, but her make-up made the difference obviously. So this was the segment in which Sam Stone, the main antagonist, and his gang are really getting it. The actor for Stone was Boots Sutherland, love the first name by the way, and the fact that you cannot really find too much about said actor makes it very obvious that the story here is just about the two guys (the longing for wealth also felt secondary only) and the opposition is only in for the fun fighting that must not miss from any Spencer movie. If I had to decide here, I'd probably say this film is closer to a verdict of greatness (4/5) than to a verdict of forgettable (2/5), but for now, I am going with the middle there. Maybe I will change my perception on rewatch. We'll see about that. It is certainly a film I'd like to see again at some point, also for the melancholy of this late reunion between these two icons. Americans may not agree to call them that, but I don't care. Here in Germany, this is definitely an accurate way to describe them. Especially Spencer. May he rest in peace. And may Hill still stay with us for a few more years. I am really grateful for the movies they brought us. You can watch them so many times and they are still entertaining. Also let me say that there was one moment when Spencer's character was talking about death here, not the funny moment when he tells everybody Hill's character is dead and the latter shows up the very same time, but another moment later on and this made me think a bit with Spencer now deceased as well. It was a bit on the bittersweet side. So yeah, enough now. Thanks for reading all this if you did, but what you really should do is watch this movie. And if you have already, then go get another Spencer film. They are almost all pretty great. This one here gets a thumbs-up from me easily. Go check it out!
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