For well over twenty years at the time of this film's release in 1988, the adventures of the hapless innocent Ugo Fantozzi (Paolo Villagio) have amused Italian audiences. In this latest installment of the Fantozzi series, he's about to retire from his job working in the hellish basement of a mortuary company. At a retirement ceremony he receives the obligatory gold watch, which, with his usual luck, has his name misspelled in the engraving. Energetic and capable of getting into more trouble in a few minutes than most of us manage in a whole lifetime, retirement is a daunting prospect for him. It proves to be an even more odious challenge to his wife Pina (Milena Vukotic), who soon takes a second job in order to pay her boss to hire Fantozzi for a make-believe job just to get him out of the house. When this fails, even more desperate measures are called for.
~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide