Ace High

I give this 5 stars because its endearing to me. It reminds me of good times spent with my step father who introduced me to Terence Hill & Bud Spencer spaghetti westerns & comedy's. For me this movie sets up "Boot Hill" as a sequel to "Ace High", I know they weren't meant to be but they work well when watched in that order. If you take the Bud Spencer Terence Hill movies to serious you will be disappointed if your looking for some light hearted western comedy then you will find it here. Terence Hill's break through movie that set up the duo of him & Bud didn't even have Bud Spencer in it. There are two types of Spaghetti westerns the high end type like "Once upon a time in the West" & the man with no name trilogy starring Clint Eastwood "A fist full of Dollars", For a few dollars more & The Good, the Bad & the Ugly". Then you have "My Name is Nobody" starring Henry Fonda & Terence Hill which is a mixture of the high end Spaghetti western & the light hearted sequels that followed. "Ace High" is a strange middle ground between the high end Spaghetti western & the light hearted "Trinity" sequel's & the other Bud Spencer Terrence Hill collaborations, most of which are great fun if your not expecting greatness in the movie. If your looking for a hard core great western don't look here. If your a fan of Terence Hill & Bud Spencer movies then you know what to expect & will probably enjoy "Ace High" because if you are a fan of these two guy's zany brand of comedy your not an armchair critic & will forgive the loose direction & production value for a bit of escapist western fun. If you are a armchair critic you probably aren't even reading this & wouldn't be able to sit through this movie let alone have fun with it.

Ace High is an excellent film, but only if you like the genre of late 60s spaghetti westerns. Note that this is a “serious” western with some occasional comedic moments and much wry irony. The story is somewhat fantastical and exaggerated beyond reality, but Ace High is NOT a parody-comedy like the subsequent Trinity films that also starred Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer. So if you’re looking for yucks, you’ll be disappointed. Ace High is a film that VERY STRONGLY borrows from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Eli Wallach plays nearly the same character in both films, and in both films he adroitly steals scenes with biting comedy-pathos. In Ace High, when Eli Wallach is on the screen, just when you want to smile, you shed a tear... and just when you want to spit with disgust, you find yourself smiling. And of course, the film delivers everything else you expect in a “first class” spaghetti western. All the dialog is looped. Mouths move one way and words come another way. Lots of beautiful exteriors. Plenty of dust, sweat, and grit in tight shots. A lot of senseless death. Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer refine the buddy act that they’ll use to such great effect in later films. Ace High is a complete joy to watch. But remember, you’ll be disappointed if you expect a comedy. This is a serious film with much dark irony.

This is a 1968 western. 2 guys, Cat & Hutch, have all their money (approx. $300,000) stolen by a man by the name of Cacopoulos. Naturally, Cat & Hutch want their money back. But when they catch up with Cacopoulos the money is all gone and in short the most expedient way to get their cash back is to team up with him. I won't go into details why this is the case but the efforts of the 2 men is complicated because Cacopoulos has his own vendetta going on which is why he stole the $300K in the first. All in all I liked this movie and the offbeat sense of humor it has. That is not to say this is a comedy, but there are humorous moments.

A gift

Nice copy of the second pairing, of three, of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer before their star-making roles in the two Trinity films. These are serious westerns, not comedies, and the violence is high. It also has the cachet of Eli Wallach playing a bandit/con man.Worth a look if you like the genre.

I've always liked Terence Hill so it was easy for me to like this movie. It's not your typical western, but a more light-hearted one. Think of it as a buddy movie crossed with a spaghetti western and I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too!

Although notable for the usual dagger-sharp performance from Eli Wallach, the interesting and likable role played by Brock Peters, and the ever-charming ruffian duo of Hill and Spencer, this one doesn't quite move me. For one thing, part of Terence Hill's charm lies in his soft, teasing, infinitely sarcastic voice--and here he's dubbed by some annoyingly same tough-guy voice actor who makes me want to put that part of the dialogue on mute and subtitles only. Meanwhile, the plot is . . . well, semi-interesting. Amusing here and there, yes. Plenty of action--goes without saying. But it lacks the comic soul and the "noble ignoramus" feeling of Trinity and a few other Hill/Spencer outings, that undefinable Puck-goes-West spirit that simply can't be replaced. So, if you're a Wallach fan, you may want to buy this for your collection, as Eli was a truly great and underrated actor and doesn't fail us here. Beyond that, well, it was kind of fun to watch--once only.

My first thought was that this was the "spaghetti western" that was made after Clint went home and the film crew/ supporting cast had nothing better to do. It was good enough that I stuck it out for the whole thing, and that's going some. It's not bad, give it a go.