Simply put "Il Secondo Tragico Fantozzi" is a masterpiece. I feel myself sorry while commenting on this movie for two main reasons; the first being that this movie was never exported to the States nor to many other foreign countries. I've seen very bad Italian movies exported to the US (where I live), and it's a shame that nobody can check this out here. The second complaint is about the quality of the sequels. While the first three movies of the "Fantozzi" series - this is the second one - are good to great, the rest is a downhill ride to stupidity and badly-recycled jokes... sorta like "Police Academy", only worse. Enough... now let's talk about the movie...
Well... just to put it clear, this is easily one of my favorite comedies of all time, far better than some overrated, over-hyped American comedies such as There's Something About Mary. It's hard to explain how absolutely hilarious and crazy the movie is... you can think about it as "Al Bundy" meets "the Pink Panther" sorta-meets "Monty Phyton" but that still doesn't do justice to the movie. Ugo Fantozzi is a worker in a major Italian Company that makes EVERYTHING. Everyone in the movie is crazy... not just a little bit... everyone is LITERALLY a nut his own way. Plus, Fantozzi is very unlucky. This leads him to a ton of catastrophic situations, him being the victim. When he goes to hunt, people behave like they're at war; there's even a delicious scene involving "The Battleship Potemkin" which might well be one of the most hilarious I've ever seen in a comedy. The scene leads to what's probably Fantozzi's most famous quote ever "Per me... La Corazzata Potemkin... E' UNA CAGATA PAZZESCA!" ("To me... The Battleship Potemkin... IS CRAZY BULLS**T!") - you should see the movie to understand why he's so mad at that. There's not really a story... it's rather a sequence of absurd situations in which Fantozzi gets involved, mainly because of his bosses and his co-workers. It's a glimpse at the Italian office life of the 70s, with every flaw of the system inflated to a monster... an absolutely hilarious one...
In the end, although Fantozzi is not really smart nor sympathetic, you end up respecting him for being the only person that has some integrity.
If you ever have the opportunity you should check this out. This would be my first choice for a Fantozzi movie, with the first "Fantozzi" as a second choice. Those are the only two directed by Luciano Salce and the next sequels are definitely inferior. ABSOLUTELY avoid any Fantozzi movie past 1985.
9/10
