Superhero Films – Super Fuzz (1980)
A review of the 1980 comedy Super Fuzz about a policeman who gains superpowers but whose weakness is the color red starring Terence Hill and Ernest Borgnine
Officer Dave Speed (Terence Hill) is determined to deliver a parking violation to a remote part of the Florida swampland. He doesn’t know however that the entire area has been evacuated for a top secret government test. Before he knows it Officer Speed is hit with a dose of red radioactive waves. His partner Ernie Dunlop Ernest Borgnine) believes the young rookie must be dead, but to his surprise Dave shows up perfectly fine – or is he?
Dave soon learns that bomb blast somehow has granted him a wide range of super powers. He has telekinesis, can see through walls, can run at super speeds, he can even miraculously make an entire football stadium crowd disappear! These powers sure will come in handy when Speed and Dunlop stumble onto a money laundering operation run by notorious Miami gangster Tony Torpedo.
There’s one slight downside to Dave’s super powers though – everytime he sees the color red his powers disappear. Uh-oh. This side effect might yield some mighty funny problems!
I take a fun nostalgic look at a movie that seemed to be on a constant rotation on HBO during my childhood. I wasn’t the only one to watch Super Fuzz (also known as Super Snooper) countless times and still remember it. Does it still hold up? Does it still have an oddball charm? Well, does it really matter? It’s not a crime to like cheesy, low-budget, bad movies every now and then!
Superhero Films – Chap. 14: Super Fuzz from HaphazardStuff on Vimeo.
That scene with Terrence Hill catching a bullet between his teeth has stayed in the memory over the years.
One thing that I remember from the time were the debates about Hill's nationality. These days you just go to Wikipedia or IMDb but in 1979-80 the Trinity Team movies were cult, late night cinema fare just coming out on VHS and with only the movies to go by a lot of us didn't know if he was an American in a bunch of Italian movies or an Italian who changed his name. Super Fuzz cleared that matter up because although his English is very good there is an accent.