In my opinion, this is possibly the best movie of Terence Hill. It's funny (the kind of funny you don't laugh loudly but you smile very often) and it is also a warm-hearted comedy with human and credible characters. I think Hill is a very good director and I like the script and the way of describing Camilo and Pepone, both with virtues and shortcomings but above all human beings fighting from opposite sides (Church vs Communism) and at the same time trying to understand each other. I really think the comparison with the films of Fernandel is not necessary, this film is made in eighties and, as another reviewer comments, the times had changed. Nice score and nice (underrated) movie.

OK, I have to say that the old Don Camillio films were excellent, but this one is not as bad as people would let you know.It is said that the hard line communists are watered down and that Don Camillio is too cool (not too cold and remote, but too hip, to trendy).Well, it is in the eighties, so one should bare in mind that it was the time when everybody was tired of the constant struggle between the communists and the church. So having them actually work together and showing more of the down sides of a worldly priest and more or less a positive side of a communist leader of a local community is also a message. You can't have a crusade against something that's not evil, but simply is. The communists in that era (acctually in all eras after the death of Lenin) who lived outside the Eastern Block (and most of them in the Eastern Block as well) were not monsters trying to destroy everything. So in this case you see a very human communist mayor and a skeptical priest, who is still trying to fight communism for the very principle of it, even if there is really no need for it.In my opinion it's a great movie, but with a completely different message from the original series. The times have changed, and so has the situation and Terence Hill saw that change and tried to incorporate it in the movie. It's actually very good that there were no stereotypical communist bad guys (like it's a positive thing to present the low ranking officers in Nazi Germany as humans instead of blood thirsty monsters).

In the first place, I clarify that this is a automatic translation of my original language review, in Spanish, so that I request excuses by any spelling mistake. I believe that although it is a good adaptation of "Don Camillo, little world", does not happen of one movie to spend the short while. I believe that make a new version, and suggest to Roberto Begnini for the role of Don Camillo, and somebody like Danny De Vitto or Joe Pesci on the Peppone's role. Terence Hill, is well in the role in that version of film, but I don't believe that is sufficient like equaling the original movie of 1952. Some of the jokes they are not understood for the American audience that it does not know in general almost hysterical humor of the Italian cinema.

Terence Hill does a surprisingly adept job of directing this film (according to IMDB, it was his first effort behind the camera), but there isn't much of a script to support him; most of the laughs are supposed to come from seeing a priest do such "outrageous" things as cheating at cards, roller-skating in his church and organizing amateur soccer games. The spirit of the film is just too gentle for a successful satire. At 120 minutes, it's also overlong - especially since the dramatic incidents don't build out of each other. It does have a beautiful score by Pino Donaggio. (**1/2)