Carrying a patchwork storyline on the strength of their top characterizations, popular Italian comics Carlo Verdone (also the director) and Enrico Montesano portray Marino and Glauco, respectively, two disparate men who find themselves reluctantly forced into joining the carabinieri, Italy's military police, when all other job prospects have failed. After miraculously passing the entrance exam, the new recruits are joined in an assignment to guard a corrupt business magnate while he is in the hospital -- an assignment which they promptly botch as the man escapes, leaving them to the task of finding him and bringing him back before anyone notices he is gone. Complicating the relationship between the two men is a woman, Rita, Marino's cousin and the object of both their desires -- a state of affairs that does not promote anything but competition between the two. A few serious situations are mixed in with the misadventures to balance the portrayal of the respected carabinieri corps, but Verdone and Montesano are still the main focus of attention.
by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
