The Terence Hill movies of the 1970's do not work in 2002
thealexanders
The Terence Hill movies of the 1970's were fun. This movie was a typical Terence Hill, Bud Spencer movie of that era with just a few things missing. 1: Bud…
The Terence Hill movies of the 1970's were fun. This movie was a typical Terence Hill, Bud Spencer movie of that era with just a few things missing. 1: Bud Spencer - replaced by Marvin Hagler, 2: Spaghetti western - replaced by spaghetti Miami vice, 3: Clever humor - replaced by poorly given and written dialogue, ridiculous situations, unfunny attempts at doing or saying something funny. I had trouble sitting through this movie to the end. I wish I had left poor old Terence back in the 70's.
★ 4 / 10
Cyber flick? Cyber flaws!
Horst_In_Translation
Well, obviously the word "flic" is the French term for a police officer, so this is where this title derives from, but maybe it is also a little play on words…
Well, obviously the word "flic" is the French term for a police officer, so this is where this title derives from, but maybe it is also a little play on words or can be seen as one today in terms of "flick" meaning "movie", even if I doubt they had this on their minds when this film was made or when they decided what title to go with. Here in Germany there are actually a handful titles for this film, even an English-language pick like "Virtual Weapon" (Lethal Weapon cash-in attempt?) and with the other one(s) they tried to make it sound like a Bud Spencer film. Definitely no coincidence because the man you see on the left side of this film poster here on imdb is of course Mr. Terence Hill and he made many films with Spencer, even if 1997 was already way past their collaborations. The poster is also a bit misleading anyway because it makes it seem as if we have two male characters at the center of the film and story, which is definitely not the case. Same applies to the brief summary here on imdb. Instead, it's all about Hill's character Skims, even if that one dies or seems to have died too . The one you see on the right is former professional boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He legally changed his name to that. He was 15 years younger than Hill when this was made (and also not just then obviously), but still he died quite some time ago and Hill is still with us now in 2022 and will hopefully stay so for a while. I am not surprised. He looked pretty good for his mid or late 50s here and I hope that now in his early 80s, he is still relatively healthy. The rest of the cast no big names at all really. Giselle Blondet plays a Latina and the central love interest to the protagonist. Not exactly a great role for any actress. The child protagonist is portrayed by Jennifer Martinez and she has never acted in another film before or after this one here. For that, her role was pretty big. For the "before" at least. Director was Antonio Margheriti and he was truly prolific. Still I cannot say anything about him really. There are two familiar names here in the writing staff. Bruno Corbucci many will recognize who know about Spencer and Hill and most likely they do know before considering watching this one here. And Jess Hill is of course Terence's son. Kinda telling the latter also goes by the last name "Hill" and not "Girotti".
The movie runs for 1.5 hours exactly pretty much or minimally shorter and turns out to be a mix of several genres really. What seems like a standard cop drama early on eventually includes a pretty noticeable fantasy and/or science fiction connection. I must say I struggled with this though and I guess, looking at the rating, I was not the only one. I mean it is kinda okay they wanted to revive the character somehow, but how he randomly shows up inside a video game and is helped by a girl to get out of there and back into the real world was a bit much. The formula other than that was not too different compared to what you have seen with Hill's characters in other films. He is really likable, really humble and yet really competent. People are truly sad when he (apparently) dies and he is loved and respected by everybody. He also has an awesome professional attitude and was the most loyal cop you can have as a partner as you see with how he talks about his former partner, who got killed. And how he is still on good terms with and a dear friend to the man's wife/girlfriend, who of course is not one bit mad at Hill's character and also not one bit hesitant to be open to the idea of dating another cop again. Hill was usually the one with romance inclusions in the Spencer/Hill flicks, so no surprise there is a love story here, even if it is only implied. Ah yes for us to not forget how brilliant of a character Hill plays this time, we are reminded for example that he was on the cover of a national magazine thanks to his skill. Reminded by his buddy, he himself is too humble to mention that. He is not only an awesome cop, but also a brilliant computer scientist. I am not really sure what to say about the scene in which the girl wants to show him something and then immediately afterwards he shows her something on the computer. That was totally unrealistic that he came up with that animation by the way through one or two clicks only, so yeah the film certainly struggled with realism and with that I am not only talking about the resurrection style. Those were the days of FIFA 97 by the way I should add and it feels difficult not to put a smiley after that. Make of that what you want. Oh and the sad silence when the girl's father was referenced felt also forced. Came short on the emotion scale this movie.
Kids became more significant in films at that point too, so no surprise the one we have here has a decent amount of screen time and also solid impact on the story. I mean kids became more significant in playing vital roles and not just being there like it was in most films before that. Here it was tolerable. I mean surely how she finds him in this game after his death was a bit strange, but seeing Hill as a video game character indeed was not too shabby I would say. How he is visually introduced there. What made absolutely no sense was how the girl was really in charge of performing tasks on her computer that were closely linked to national security. We are led to believe she was a super scientist already despite her age. Not as super as Hill's character obviously, but still. As for the girl, she is also the first one who can see him because she loves him. Not in a romantic sense obviously. This inclusion, especially of his partner having to say the three magical words to be able to see him too did feel a bit gooey for sure, but it was there to emphasize how kind of a character Hill portrayed here and in general this message for the heart was nothing unusual either in terms of films from that era and also previous Spencer/Hill films, even if the latter had a slightly gruffer touch to them all the time (probably because of Spencer playing grumpy characters usually), even if a key message was about kindness on many occasions.
What else can I say about this one here? I must say I struggled with it for the most part. The first half was tolerable at best, the second 45 minutes did not get any better really and I am glad it did not reach the 100-minute mark. It is one of my least favorite Terence Hill films, maybe even my least favorite from all the ones I have seen. And I have seen many. Sometimes the occasional quote was a bit on the entertaining side and the Street Fighter mention pretty early on during a conflict between the two men you see on the poster here on imdb was a bit funny. I wonder if they also included Street Fighter in the original-language version or just dubbed it like this for Germany with how popular this game is here. Maybe I liked this scene too, maybe more than I should have, because I know the game, but Hill's cheeky side came through nicely there when he acts all innocent as if he does not know what's going on. What his partner means. Maybe this moment was the best part of this film. Or maybe Blondet's looks. Not blonde at all by the way. Perhaps that is why I liked it/her. As for the more dramatic parts, the child prodigy gets abducted towards the end, but a blind man can see how they wanted to keep it family-friendly and there was never any danger at all, not even remotely, not even verbally that something bad could happen to the girl in terms of characters talking about her. Very fitting that the villain's female helper also takes a liking to the girl and is eventually mad at the villain for how dares he treat this innocend kind girl in such a way. Oh well, how did he treat her? He did not really do anything at all except taking her on a cruise and being her host on a luxury liner. I can think of less pleasant abduction scenarios.
Away from the supporting characters and back to Hill's, the actor was maybe at his best when he could show us his comedic timing like when he used his new superpower(s), you can almost call it that, to play minor pranks on his buddies. Definitely more fun and interesting to watch than the serious moments when he gets all defensive about taking good care of the little girl and protecting/rescuing her. It was also never really clear if he was invisible now or could be seen. Towards the very end then, after a scene in which we are led to believe he almost dies on the operating table (definitely very much on the pseudo dramatic side, we always knew he would live), he is really back to his normal self and fully recovered. What a miracle after what happened with him in the crucial scene that led to his apparent death. Pretty much impossible. Oh well. As I stated earlier, there is really not a lot in here that felt realistic and authentic. Maybe a little more stuff that felt entertaining, but this was also not particularly close to being enough for me to give this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation overall. I still want to make myself clear that I also don't think this is on failure territory. Pretty much never. "Forgettable" and "mediocre" are two solid terms to summarize the overall outcome. One to watch maybe for Hill completionists, but everybody else can skip it. I guess it is Hill's name attached to this project that is the reason why Cyberflic is still on national television here from time to time. At least here in Germany. Without him in the lead, it would have been long forgotten I think. Oh yeah, maybe people from Miami can watch it too because they will see some locations from their city. But from the story perspective there is not really much of a reason to check it out. I also did not get the idea how some super special weapon here was used by the villain to blow stuff up. One of several examples. Wish I could go easier on this one as it has its 25th annversary this year, but it's not possible. Watch something else instead. (tt0275287)
4.4/10
599
•••
greek subtitles plsss