Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure

source: Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure

I like the bit where he pulls a coconut back in someone's eyepatch and crushes it into his face

This is pure escapist slapstick comedy. Don't try to find any hidden meaning in the simple plot. There isn't any. Terence Hill, in hock to gangsters, is given a map which purports to show the location of a hidden treasure on the mysterious island of Bongo Bongo. He stows away on a small motorsailer captained by bearlike Bud Spencer which is leaving on a circumnavigation. Despite the fact that the boat is only 30 feet long, the two blundering mutually antagonistic Hill and Spencer manage to keep out of each others way until well into the voyage. The stowaway scenes are the comedic highlight of the movie. The rest is slapstick bluster. The point of departure is obviously Miami, Florida but Bongo Bongo is located in the South Seas. Hill manages to rig the compass so that the boat heads for the island instead of on its intended course. During a tussle both fall overboard and swim for the island, a tropic paradise inhabited by natives who behave like the cast from a 1920s Harlem musical. The island is guarded by a Japanese WW2 soldier unaware that the war is long over. He fires shots randomly in all directions narrowly missing both protagonists. Naturally the treasure is hidden in his fort. Hill and Spencer demolish the fort and most of the other structures on the island with the help of an abandoned WW2 Japanese tank. At this point the Japanese soldier reveals a remarkable talent for English music hall comedy and the three become allies. Periodically the island is visited by slave traders and the gangsters who, having found a duplicate map, are also looking for the treasure. Like Gilligan's Island, everyone except Hill and Spencer seem to come and go as they please. Each visit results in a slapstick melee in which Hill and Spencer are uniformly victorious, performing Jackie Chan feats of derring do. The escape from the island is anti-climatic except for the surprise ending which is as improbable as the rest of the story. I must confess that I watched this movie because I own the original boat that was featured in the first half. It is a 1974 Willard Horizon motorsailer and looks just as it did in the film. The previous owner was a technical consultant on the seagoing sequences for the producer. I'm a fan of the boat, not necessarily the actors - but the film is a good family diversion on a rainy night. The kids will love it.

A stowaway (Terence Hill) on board a small yacht has a treasure map and convinces the solo skipper (Bud Spencer) when found to find the treasure from WWII on a small Pacific island. When they find the island they encounter natives, a former WWII Japanese soldier and some leather clad pirates. Filmed at and just off Key Biscayne, Florida, this Italo-US comedy that once again stars the winning formula of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer is pretty dreadful and desperate stuff both as comedy and action. Despite their huge popularity in Europe, there is not fone funny moment or titter in the film.

As a Bud Spencer/Terence Hill fan, I always loved to watch these two guys giving a punch for all the bad guys (whose were almost all the same in each movie :)), but this film was the best of their works. All the jokes, the funny characters and scenes (especially the closing sentence) are classic! The acting is not so strong but in these films it's not really important at all. Spencer and Hill bring their own style, playing each other and tricking, gaging all the time. My only complain is the poor English dub. The Hungarian version is much more witty. Too bad for that. But don't worry, it's not a big loss. If You like to laugh, but don't care about realism and just want to chill out with a can of beer, this is the movie you must see! Chocho

beautiful film. As to the usual one, the usual negative comments which talk about a classical film some years 80 which everyone does not like it to the nostalgic ones are met.Sure Heros that this film had to have a judgment in this site. In fact reviewers' good part has put a high vote to the previous episodes. Because this contrast? I know the reason. Since assumptive reviewers' good part favorably sees the past and as the past is "better" than the present they have given several credit to the preceding episodes being still the last episode more explosive and spectacular. At this point should reject also the old episodes but there are here two weights and two measure.In fact also cinema masterpieces have been criticized and denigrated. Good part some reviewers of this site belong to the very bad reviewers. Better think separately with its head. arise the vote. (petrovaz@mail.ru) Shame

Anyone who hasn't yet seen a movie starring Bud Spencer should IMHO not begin with this one. I think it's one of his worst movies, but it's not primarily due to any inabilities in Spencer's acting. He gives us what we might expect, but the acting of all other characters is so weak that it's no fun, this time! Well, I didn't expect a witty movie with a reasonable plot and brilliant acting of EVERYONE... but, sorry, THIS one doesn't even give enough pleasure to fill a lazy hour on a Sunday afternoon! Why? It is a good joke that the both main characters hunt each other 'round the boat and then fall into the ocean, only to see the boat sail away without them, and now they are stranded on a -seemingly- uninhabited island. And it's also okay to watch Spencer grudgingly agree that Hill stays with him. BUT once they come in contact with the natives, the whole thing becomes just annoying: 1) The natives behave like semi-idiots, with the female Chief's son as the biggest of them all. It's racist and arrogant to depict them that way. 2) Equally absurd is the way the Japanese soldier behaves. I can only review the German dubbed version, maybe the English version is better, BUT when the soldier jumps around and shouts and yells, it is SO obvious that he doesn't do that in Japanese... just senseless words, isn't that ridiculous? 3) When Spencer and Hill have made their way into the Fort, disarmed the soldier, and it has already turned out that the Chief's son is the son of the soldier, and the latter says "Sorry that I have to do hara-kiri" and walks off the scene - wouldn't you expect his son following him and trying to hinder him from that? Nothing of that sort happens, he (in that sense an idiot, indeed) just remains apathetic and does - nothing. VERY strange moment... not funny, just annoying and tragic. 4) And the WWII tank! Had Spencer and Hill really demolished half the village, I bet the natives would have turned in rage against them. That there doesn't happen anything of that sort, leaves me again with the thought, they were real fools altogether! Again, the natives are shown as irreasonable, cowardice savages. If there had to be natives, it had been better to show them as people with courage, intelligence, maybe aggressive warriors with frightening paint on their bodies; defending their island with cleverness, most of the time hidden in the jungle. THAT would have created an element of REAL tension and fear, but they are so harmless and dull that they can simply be shown as a comical element, that's not good. Spencer and Hill behave towards the natives like "arrogant white foreigners who think of themselves as superior to the others", commandeering around the latter ones at their will. Maybe it's not intentionally shown that way, and just slapstick was intended, but that's the impression I had of it. Often there are comments about movies below average to the effect that they might at least be okay for a very slow afternoon. I would like to sum up: If this one comes along at the right time on TV, and you have plenty of time, watch it. But I would not buy the VHS or (if there is any, I didn't check that) the DVD. Only enjoyable for collectors who want to have ALL available movies where Spencer and/or Hill were involved. Otherwise I'd suggest to leave it out and instead to watch those of Spencer's movies where he played Commissare Rizzo (aka Piedone), or, those of Hill's movies which are set in a Western scene. Two stars for Spencer's grumbling and brawling, one star for the only touching moment (when the Japanese admits that he has a son, and reminisces the old days, decades ago).

I did not think too highly about the 1970-80s European comedies shot in English (in a desperate attempt to attain a wider release). Lots of such films have been made and practically none of them appeared to be of any interest or significance. And my expectations were not high when I was about to sit down watch this one but I was wrong! Yes, and I am not ashamed of avowing it. Who Finds A Friend Finds A Treasure is a great comedy, a hysterically funny "treasure hunting" story. In short, two fellows go on a daring quest to discover a buried treasure hidden on a tiny island in the South Pacific by Japanese soldiers during WWII. On their way to the treasure they face (besides their personal disaccords) sharks, pirates, aborigines and last but not least a crazed Japanese still living in the debris of the Japanese military base in firm believe that the war still goes on. And be prepared for a great surprise at the end…. The dialogue is witty, the actors do very good work. These are namely brilliant comedians Terence Hill and Bad Spencer. Even their appearance can make you smile: naive, tall, slim, agile Hill ideally compensates level-headed, fat, moving with a slow motion Spencer. They make plenty of fighting all the way and all these fighting scenes shot in a cartoon style will make you roll on the floor laughing. Yes, very funny, family friendly film with no brief language, sexual references or crude humor. Recommended.

Out from the pile of countless Bud Spencer action movies this is one of the best ones, and it also features Bud's best counterpart Terence Hill. Directly from the theme tune onwards this movie guarantees that you won't be needing any brains to enjoy this one; I didn't even notice that there was any other piece of music playing on during the film. Some people may not like it when a movie is full of comic violence, and even more comic adversaries, but also there is delightfully lot of different sceneries to keep any monotonous feeling away. Funny representation of the Japanese soldier who thinks that the second world war still rages on is something this type of comedy may be best suited for and it therefore is really worth seeing.

Choco, my friend from Hungary, you convinced me to watch this film. I must say I cannot agree with your review. I was hoping for much better than this poorly written, acted, and directed time-waster. Yes, there are a few good moments here and there, but for me, it was not worth the effort. You indicate that it would be good to watch while drinking a beer. I disagree; I think this film needs a six-pack, maybe a case, before you even insert the DVD. But I'm glad you enjoyed it, Choco, and maybe others will agree with you instead of me. (Now tell me, my friend, when are you Hungarians going to produce some English subtitles for "Jurachick Park"?)