Aladdin (1986)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Entertaining and funny Italian film with the bouncing Spencer or Carlo Perdesoli as the magician Aladdin who this time travels to modern era emerging from a magic lamp . Updating of the old "Aladdin" Arabian Nights tale with a ¨genie of the lamp¨ and a teenager (Luca Venantini) in modern-day Miami who encounters a marvelous lantern and pops out a fantastic genie, who's been asleep for 200 years and in his gratitude grants the boy several wishes such as a Rolls Royce , invisibility and appearance . The adolescent lives with his mother (Janet Agreen) and a drunk grandpa and the genie help them . Meanwhile the teenager falls in love with a beautiful girl (Diamante Spencer , as trivia is Bud's daughter). There happens several adventures as the boy is abducted and the genie frees him . Fun comedy set on Miami , it's a vehicle for Bud Spencer enthusiasts , dealing with kidnappings , mobsters (Venantino Venantini, father of the starring Luca Venantini)and an obstinate policeman (Umberto Raho) . Aladdin takes on lots of greed men who are interested in his supernatural powers , facing off risks, and several adventures.This is a sympathetic entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer buffs , as he's delightful . It packs magic , 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 much 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 highlights of the movie are the Basketball championship in which, thanks the magical powers, the boy bounds and leaps with the ball in ¨Flubber¨ film style ; furthermore the sea-ski competition and the likable drinking contest between the genie and the alcoholic grandpa . 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" , and ¨Trinity is still my name¨ . 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.In the 70s and 80s Bud Spencer starred quite a few movies without Terence Hill , as he made three kind of films : 1ª he performed pictures with a little boy as partner as ¨Banana Joe ¨ , ¨Aladdin¨and ¨The Supersheriff¨ ; 2ª about cop named Flatfoot or Rizzo, also called Piedone, such as, ¨Flatfoot in Cairo , Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Egypt , Flatfoot in Africa¨, furthermore the ¨Extralargo¨ series 3ª about diverse characters as a medieval knight as ¨Soldier of fortune¨ , a swindler as ¨Mr Charleston¨ or a fisherman , ex-player as ¨Bulldozer .The picture packs commercial musical score by Frizzi in similar style to the usuals Guido and Maurizio De Angelis , including catching songs fitting perfectly in the mood of the movie . Passable cinematography by Silvio Ippoliti , though is necessary a perfect remastering . The story is middling written by by Marcello Fondato, following the Hill-Spencer ordinary trademarks , he wrote several Spencer vehicles as ¨Bulldozer¨, ¨Aladino¨, ¨The Supersheriff¨, and ¨The sheriff and the extraterrestrial little boy¨ and directed him in ¨Mister Charleston¨. The motion picture is regularly directed by Bruno Corbucci, Sergio Corbucci's brother. Bruno wrote and directed various Hill-Spencer films as ¨Banana Joe¨ , ¨Miami Supercops¨ , ¨Par-Impar¨ , ¨Cat and Dog¨ and ¨Aladdin¨ . If you love the Spencer's other movies, go for it, and if you've never seen one this is an acceptable start ; but only for Bud fans .This is an average entertaining juvenile that will appeal to Italian comedy buffs .

This movie has a boy named Al getting a hold of a lamp and then meeting the genie who had been asleep for years and years. The boy finds he can have all of the wishes he wants and he takes advantage of them. He gets fancy cars that fly, he gets the girl of his dream and he eventually gets his buddy the genie to stop all of the bad crimes going on in the town and to hang around a while and be a friend and not just a genie.This movie was such a beautiful 95 minutes of 80's Italian cheese. I loved it better than any of the 6 or 7 Aladdin movies I had ever seen. It is corny, but it was aimed at kids and it was from 1986 so cut it some slack. It has good messages and great acting, great writing and good direction. It is funny, has some good fist fights with the great Bud Spencer and is a fun film.Bruno Corbucci did good directing and other than the green screen shots it was very fun. Dardano Sacchetti is my all time favorite writer and he wrote the story here along with his sometime collaborator Elisa Briganti. The two of them have did some of Italy's best horror and action films of the 70's and 80's so this was something new and different for them. Acting wise Bud Spencer was perfect, I think he is one of the best actors ever and he did such a great job in this kids film. Luca Venantini was perfect as Al too, this kid didn't do a ton of movies but hes a great actor and I wish he had done more films.Great film and a must see for Spencer fans and anyone wanting to see Aladdin but not wanting to watch Disney junk with the annoying Robin Williams should see this one. 5/10 stars

I saw this yesterday on TV. It's not your usual "Alladdin", but more of a Bud Spencer (sans Terence Hill) flick really. It plays like a B movie, with some awkward acting, specially from the villains. There's even some really politically incorrect stuff for the kids.Bud is as cool as ever, the boy is okay, and that drunk grandpa manages to be annoying and funny at the same time. I had fun watching this, but then again I really like Bud and Terence stuff.You can expect a lot of staged fights, clumsy acting, weird stuff going on and lots of continuity/logic errors. But who cares?I give this a 7 out of 10 on a good day.

Is this the Ziploc Bag guy playing the Genie? Anyway, this whole movie is like an LSD trip where bizarre stuff just happens to this really geeky kid, and he has this fat genie to help him out. All this, of course, amid truly horrible acting, special effects and dialogue. It's so bad, though, it's funny. So buy it if you see it at a bargain basement bin. It'll only set you back a buck anyway.