My Friends Act III (1985)

My Friends Act III is special because it lets comedy age right alongside its characters, turning the familiar pleasure of elaborate pranks into something sharper, sadder, and surprisingly human. Nanni Loy keeps the pace brisk and the tone mischievous, but he frames these old Tuscan troublemakers with a bittersweet warmth—like laughter echoing down a hallway where time can’t be ignored. Ugo Tognazzi’s Mascetti, still armed with the legendary “supercazzola,” brings the kind of comic timing that feels effortless, while the retirement-home setting becomes a perfect stage for jokes that flirt with the absurd and the existential. It’s not for everyone—some humor is deliberately mean-spirited and the film doesn’t pretend that consequences don’t exist—but if you like comedies that make you laugh and then quietly catch in your throat, this one earns your time.

My Friends Act III is clearly trying to bottle the original series’ anarchic, Tuscan-buddy chaos and then filter it through old age, illness, and the stubborn refusal to grow up. The problem is that a lot of the comedy leans on mean-spirited pranks and broad farce that can feel less “mischievous” and more uncomfortable, especially when the targets are vulnerable people in a retirement home. It’s also a looser, more repetitive entry than you might hope, with stretches that play like variations on familiar bits rather than a story that builds to something satisfying. If you love the cast, the Italian comic rhythm, and the “supercazzola” style of nonsense, you’ll still find moments of charm and melancholy; if you’re not already on this wavelength, it may come off as dated, cruel, and oddly sour for a comedy.