Review: Aladdin (1986)

A ‘modern’ update of the tale in which a Miami teenager named Al Haddin (Luca Ventanini) finds a lamp in a junk store, conjures up a burly genie (Bud Spencer) and gets his every wish granted. This genie seems particularly adept at beating people up, including cops and mobsters.

 

I bet you didn’t know Cannon Films made their own version of “Aladdin” in 1986 with spaghetti western star Bud Spencer as the genie (Looking like latter-day Steven Seagal. You won’t be able to un-see it now). Well now you know. Amazingly, it’s actually harmless and cute if obviously cheap...and don’t even get me started on the theme song. Bud Spencer is amiable as the genie. He’s not exactly the most fluent English speaker but he gets the job done and it’s fun seeing him in something a little different and a bit goofy. He’s the chief attraction here for me at least. I must say I thought American-born Luca Ventanini was annoying as hell in the title role and pretty charmless. So that is a bit of a debit.

 

Directed by Bruno Corbucci (co-writer of “Castle of Blood” and “Django”), the film is also too long for something so thin, which is a shame. It drags here and there, it should’ve been 80 minutes maximum. I loved how the filmmakers thought Al Haddin was somehow a more credible name than Aladdin. I’m not even being a smart arse, I thought it was genuinely hilarious. There’s also a good bit where the genie turns guard dogs into little puppies. The film gets strangely dark at one point with kids being kidnapped in order to be sold off and shipped out. I’m not sure what that was doing in a kids movie let alone an “Aladdin” movie but I kinda just accepted the whole goofy thing for what it is.

 

It's a cute film and worthy of at least a (very) soft recommendation. I just wish it were a bit shorter and maybe a less annoying lead than Ventanini (son of Italian actor Ventanino Ventanini). The thin screenplay comes from the interesting trio of Dardano Sacchetti (Argento’s excellent “Inferno”, as well as the cult titles “The New York Ripper”, “Cut and Run”, “Demons”, and “Killer Crocodile”), Elisa Briganti (Sacchetti’s wife and collaborator), and Mario Amendola (“The Great Silence”, Lucio Fulci’s “Young Dracula”).

 

Rating: B-

 

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