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They Call Me Trinity/Trinity Is Still

They Call Me Trinity/Trinity Is Still

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best Spaghetti Westerns -- with a twist !
Review: "They call Me Trinity" deserves six stars except for the poor video quality. This looks a UMAX tape version that has been overly compressed by mpeg 2 in it's conversion from tape to digital. It's a shame that one of the greatest Italian westerns ever made should have been treated in this way. My understanding is that the beautiful film-to-digital video transfers [for example 'Los Campaneros' or 'Day of Anger'] have been scanned from original 35mm film in a Rank or Ampex video conversion machine that converts the 35mm image directly to digital video with little or no compression, but 'Trinity' obviously did not get that treatment. 'Trinity' stars Bud Spencer [real Italian name is Carlo Pedersoli] and Terrence Hill [Mario Girotti] as two at-odds brothers, one a rough diamond and the other an accomplished intelligent goofball. The plot is fairly simple with the two brothers trying to prevent a gang of outlaws from terrorizing a group of farmers and stealing their land. Much of the humor in this film is very subtle and can only be appreciated after viewing two or three times. The test of a good movie is multiple watchability and Trinity certainly succeeds with every scene containing importance and entertainment value. The interaction with the farmers becomes a little tedious in the end and parts could have been cut since the movie is fairly long at nearly two hours. In fact the length of the movie may account for the excessive video compression on DVD. The editing style is more consistent with older movies and wham-bam-thank-you-mam fans may not like the pace. Even so this is a very special entry and the humor is engaging and optimistic and never stilted or patronizing, and the action scenes are also extremely well done. Hence the classic nature of this film as a spaghetti favorite. Will end on the usual disclaimer with spaghettis: traditional 'John Wayne' western fans probably won't like this movie and will rate it with low marks, however that is a tremendous shame because 'Trinity' is a solid gold spaghetti classic!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Movie, DVD sucks
Review: At the risk of repeating the other reviews: this DVD sucks! I loved Terrence Hill's deadpan performance in this spaghetti western, but the DVD quality just isn't there. I've tryied playing it on a Sony DVD player, a PS2, my laptop, and even a CineVision DVD player. Only the PS2 even recognized the menu, and could partially play the movie. The burn was too faint for the other players to read at all. (No scratches on disk.)
Buy this on VHS!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Movie, DVD sucks
Review: At the risk of repeating the other reviews: this DVD sucks! I loved Terrence Hill's deadpan performance in this spaghetti western, but the DVD quality just isn't there. I've tryied playing it on a Sony DVD player, a PS2, my laptop, and even a CineVision DVD player. Only the PS2 even recognized the menu, and could partially play the movie. The burn was too faint for the other players to read at all. (No scratches on disk.)
Buy this on VHS!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Max Brand, Italian style
Review: First, let me explain the three stars are for the DVD, not the Trinity Boys (they are 5 star all the way). What we need is a digital restoration of Terence Hill movies. The Spaghetti Western genre relied on several gimmicks: obtuse plots, quirky characters, superhuman heroes, great music, and lastly INTENSE,VIBRANT COLORS. Unless you catch them on the Western Channel, almost all home video versions of these movies are faded travesties. This dvd is better than most, but is nothing compared to the original. This is even more true of Boot Hill.If you've never seen the intensity of Terence Hill's blue eyes set into his impossibly tan face, then you can't begin to realize how much the color has faded. I remember watching Terence Hill in Boot Hill back at a drive-in and thinking "my gosh, he's darker than Woody Strode!"
As for Trinity, it holds up wonderfully 30 years later as a classic parody of Spaghetti Westerns. The two brothers are straight out of the more humorous work of Max Brand: gifted with extraordinary skill bordering on the supernatural with which they better their adversaries in outlandish ways. The sequel was just as good and I wish they had made ten more of them. Lacking that, somebody please restore these wonderful films!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: They Call Me Trinity
Review: Great movie, extremely poor quality of conversion between film and DVD. Video quality appears overexposed, washed-out. Audio is also very poor. Claims to be Dolby, but it's mono. Claims to be widescreen, but it's not. The VHS version has a much better color resolution. Sad.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: TERRIBLE QUALITY PICTURE
Review: I have purchased the double sided DVD with both movies - They Call Me Trinity and Trinity Is Still My Name. The DVD is recorded by "Quality Special Products". What a misleading name. The picture is terrible, like a 3rd copy from a VCR tape. I have the same DVD from German e-m-s in widescreen and with very good picture.
I do not recommend buying "Quality" recording, it is WASTE OF MONEY.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Here They Go Again!
Review: I vividly remember watching several Bud Spencer/Terence Hill films in the early 1980s. This Italian comedy team always provided lots of laughs with the crazy situations each of their films put them in, and these two goofballs were in a lot of different situations, from westerns to car races to cop films. Throughout it all, the formula always stayed the same: Spencer played the taciturn giant who always found himself roped into yet another misadventure by kind hearted Hill. What followed usually involved several awesomely choreographed fistfights (actually hilarious slapfests), slapstick comedy on a level one rarely sees, and a sappy ending where the two save some unfortunate soul who needed their help. I am hoping for a DVD release of "Crimebusters," but until then I will take what I can get from these two funny actors. This means watching films like "They Call Me Trinity"

"They Call Me Trinity" is really a spoof of the popular spaghetti western genre so prevalent during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this engaging comedy, Spencer and Hill play two gunslingers caught up in the harsh realities of the Old West. The film opens with a shot of Trinity (Hill) lounging on a rickety sled pulled by his horse across a baking desert (shades of Corbucci's "Django"?). Trinity arrives at a hole in the wall restaurant where he takes some guff from a couple of bounty hunters who don't like his looks. When the two thugs discover they are facing down Trinity, the fear on their faces is unmistakable because this unassuming, dirty creature facing them is the fastest gunslinger in the West, often referred to as "the right hand of the devil" due to his amazing speed in drawing an iron.

Trinity easily deals with these two bounty hunters and continues on his journey to meet up with his half-brother Bambino, played by the inestimable Bud Spencer. Bambino is a taciturn giant of a man, seemingly slow to anger but capable of out shooting the most dangerous outlaws in the land. He's so fast they call him "the left hand of the devil." When Bambino doesn't feel like putting a man in a coffin, he merely slaps them unconscious with a quick blow to the head. Bambino is less than enthused about the arrival of Trinity, and for good reason: his brother always manages to embroil him in dangerous situations. Since Bambino is actually an outlaw himself hiding behind a sheriff's badge, he does not need the attention Trinity always manages to bring wherever he goes.

This wouldn't be a real western without some ornery villain whose sole purpose in life is to cause misery to everyone in town. In "They Call Me Trinity," that villain is the Major, a southern dandy who raises horses. Major and his gang of miscreants have taken a special disliking to a group of Mormon farmers settling in a nearby valley. Problem is, Trinity takes a liking to two blonde Mormons and now decides to give them a hand, all the while dragging the reluctant Bambino into the resulting fracas. Every attempt Major makes to dislodge Trinity and Bambino fails, often with hilarious results. When Major decides to join forces with some ridiculous hombres in the region for a final showdown with the farmers, the results are quite amusing.

There are at least two sublime joys one gets from watching a Spencer/Hill film. One is the facial expressions and vocalizations of Bud Spencer and the other is the slapstick scenes in each of the duo's films. Bambino is an absolute hoot to watch, always grunting and shrugging with barely repressed disgust as Trinity drags him into yet another problematic situation. Bambino's people skills are sure to draw a chuckle. For instance, on at least two occasions friendly passersby throw out a "howdy, sheriff" only to hear Bambino growl "shut up" while he keeps on walking. In one scene, Bambino discovers Trinity is in a bad situation and asks hopefully, "Is he dead?" only to look crestfallen when informed that his brother is not yet six feet under. The bear like Spencer is a marvelous contrast to the rail thin Hill.

Then there is the omnipresent slapstick. This usually translates into a huge fistfight/slapfest where Spencer and Hill lay waste to huge crowds of enemies. The final fight in "They Call Me Trinity" is probably one of the largest in a Spencer/Hill production. There must be fifty guys wailing away on each other for about ten full minutes, with furniture, boards, and fists all delivering punishment in rapid fire succession. The fight scenes in this film aren't as funny as the one in "Crimebusters" where Spencer puts a pair of bowling shoes on his hands before beating the tar out of a gang of mafia hoods, but it's still satisfying to watch.

The DVD of "They Call Me Trinity" is a mixed bag. This film really deserves a better treatment than the one offered here. The picture quality isn't all that bad, but you can tell there was no restoration performed on the print. In fact, the picture is barely above VCD quality. The audio isn't great, either, with significant background hum between dialogue sequences. As for extras, there is a lame trivia quiz and short biographies on Spencer and Hill. A commentary by Bud Spencer and Terence Hill would be a nice touch, too. Still, the movie is more than watchable and serves as an excellent introduction to the antics of these two funny comedians. I can't wait to see more Spencer/Hill productions come out on DVD.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Maybe They'll Try To Make A DVD One Day!
Review: I'm Sorry! I loved this film, as well as it's sequal. They are clever, detailed, and funny on a number of levels. I enjoy the unglamorous aspects of these westerns that better portay the benefits of living conditions here in the 21st century. Most westerns aren't this thruthfull, despite the fact that these films are spoofs.

When I first attemped to play the DVD, I removed it after 5 minutes, frustrated and disapppointed. I knew, when I ordered it, that it was pan & scan (full screen), and although that was a let down for such an excellent film, I adjusted my enthusiasm accordingly. But this thing looks like a distorted copy of the original VHS tape, only with the edges cropped even tighter. There's less picture viewable than the VHS tape, and to make matters worse, the DVD has, as a result, poorer resolution too. It also has washed out color.

My honest recommendation, if you don't own a copy of this film in any format, is to buy the VHS copy of it. There are no extras on the DVD. So, the only thing you lose by buying a VHS copy is 1) a requirement to rewind the tape, and 2) a 7 year shelf life before degradation starts becoming noticable. And what would you gain with a VHS copy of this excellent film? You'd gain the entire "Full Frame" picture in a better quality of color rendering. Maybe you could even record your own DVD-R copy of the VHS tape. Even that would be better than this.

Mark.........................................................................................................................

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a darn good spaghetti western
Review: Terence Hill became an international superstar with this superb film, and so did Bud Spencer. They play gunslinging outlaw half brothers who end up trying to help protect a Mormon settlement from a band of Mexican desperado's. While the Mormon's turn the other cheek, the desperado's quickly learn the Trinity brothers will not. They follow the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth teaching. But it's not just the Mexican's who want the Mormon settlement, another band of cut throats want it too, and eventually team up with the desperado's to try and take it. With all these outlaws what's the two Trinity brothers to do? Well, I won't say, but I will tell you that this movie is packed with lots of hilarious comedy, great action, and a taste of suspense. One interesting twist to this movie is that Bambino (played by Bud Spencer) is sheriff of the nearby town. How he got the job is a laugh riot in itself. This is a movie the whole family can watch and enjoy, and the sequel (Trinity is still my Name) is equally entertaining .

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Witty and Unexpexcted Humor
Review: The wit and unexpected humor of "They Call Me Trinity" was sadly marred by poor color and audio, despite a strong plot and intriguing religious subtext.

Trinity is a fast, but relaxed gun fighter, and his brother is a lazy horse thief pretending to be a sheriff to hide his crimes. Both protect a community of Mormons (who act like Amish) who do not believe in violence.

Trinity is lot like Eastwood/Blondie in GBU, with a certain James Bond charm. He is not the usual brash gunman, but is twice and tough, and twice as sweet. A great character.

In the spaghetti western tradition, mimicking "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," this film has all Italian cast. The dubbing didn't cut it, as it seemed imposed on the movie more than it was integrated.

I'd like to see the series remade.

I recommend "They Call Me Trinity." The movie is funny, and worth renting, but buying it is only for the true fans of the genre.

Anthony Trendl


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