Odds and Evens (4 Stars)

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill play Charlie and Johnny Firpo. They're half brothers, and my guess is that their mothers must have looked very different. The only thing they have in common is their fighting skills. Either of them can walk into a room with 20 bad guys and knock them all out wit their fists. When the two of them fight side by side they can take on a small army.

The film takes place in Miami. Johnny is a lieutenant in the United States Marines. Charlie is a retired gambler who now works as a truck driver. Johnny's superior officer has ordered him to go undercover to get evidence against a gang of alleged fixers who steal people's money by cheating at gambling. Do the Marines really do things like that? It sounds more like a police job to me. Nevertheless, Johnny knows nothing about gambling, so her enlists the help of his brother.

Whether it's boat racing, car racing or horse racing, the gang bribes the best competitors to lose their races. Johnny and Charlie sabotage the fixes by taking the place of the competitors. Whether it's boats, cars or horses, one of them is always the best. Charlie is also the best Jai Alai player in Miami. I'd never heard of the sport before watching the film. It looks like fun. It's similar to Squash, but the racket is the shape of a hollow banana and can catch the ball.

As well as uncovering the fixers, the brothers have another goal. They want to win a million dollars for an orphanage which is being forced to close. That's something else the brothers have in common: they both have a good heart.

This is a hilarious film. There's action throughout the film, but it's the comedy that stands out. I don't know how successful the film was worldwide, but in 1978 it was the most successful film in German cinemas with over five million viewers. Apart from Italy, Germany was the country where Bud and Terence were most popular. The film is out of print in America, but the German Blu-ray release includes English dialogue.