Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

rodrig58 I like the Italians, most of all, but I do not like Massimo Troisi and Roberto Benigni, for me are the most annoying actors ever. Troisi, you do not understand what he says, in all the films he speaks in a kind of dialect that only he understands. In all the movies is the same, boring at the top. You got to have a great deal of steel patience and great love for cinema to watch this movie in its entirety. Troisi and Benigni, who are also directing, are not genius and are not funny at all.

arrobarriba A real masterpiece by Benigni and Troisi. The plot is very simple and there are no special effects. However, what earns this book a place in history books is the outstanding acting performance of these two comedians. You can see from the beginning that most of the sketches are improvisations; their acting is so natural and clean. The reason why it did not gain international recognition is because it cannot possibly transmit the same emotions with with subtitles. Translation becomes nonsense in a movie that is so culturally-bound. I wish I could recommend it to everybody, but I must say that you really need to understand Italian plus some Neapolitan and Florentine dialect in order to appreciate it in its entirety. Besides, you also need to know a little bit about the culture and history of Italy. In Italy, this was, is and will always be an outstanding piece of art.

petra_ste One of the best Italian comedies after the great cycle of the Sixties/Seventies, the film's greatest assets are its leads, Roberto Benigni before his Oscar days and the late, greatly missed Massimo Troisi.In this time-travel comedy the two main characters are magically transported to 1492. Saverio (Benigni), school teacher and history buff unhappy with his previous life, is ecstatic and strives to exploit the situation, while meek janitor Mario (Troisi) is terrified by violence, fanaticism and lack of hygiene.Benigni is hilariously vital and overbearing, jumping around as if hit by 10.000 volts; Troisi is priceless as the whiny, dejected fish out of water.The first two acts crackle with wit and inventions. The best moments occur when Saverio and Mario start exploring the town, the former pompously strutting around, the latter inching his way through the streets. There is a great homage to the letter scene of Totò, Peppino e la... Malafemmina, and a clever bit where the two ponder which modern inventions they could produce and desultorily conclude they could maybe manage to craft some sort of rudimentary toilet.Unfortunately, after a memorable encounter with an unexpectedly thick Leonardo da Vinci, the movie loses a bit of its comedic momentum - although the very ending is a stroke of genius.8/10

p13r0 Two actors at their best (Roberto Benigni before he became big-headed after the world wide fame and the late lamented Massimo Troisi) playing a strange story, where these two young modern men wake up in 1492 after spending a night out because their car broke down.Settled in the italian reinassance, pretty well depicted despite the low budget used, the movie is substantially a collection of sketches based on the struggles that the two men must fight against the different lifestyle, with some secondary stories based on historical personages lived in that time (Savonarola, Columbus, Da Vinci). This is one of the most beloved italian movie of all the times, and everybody saw this movie can remember all of the most famous dialogues (Vitellozzo after the death of his brother, the "remember that you shall die!" speech, the scene at the customs, and many others) by hearth, as they were funny and innovative.Directed with a very slow rhythm, that adds a quite poetic touch to the story, this movie must be considered as a small masterpiece, a comedy unique of its kind. Comparing this with one of the later italian comedy should be done to understand the meaning of the term "good taste".Unluckily, anybody without a very fluent italian can't completely enjoy this movie, because a big part of the funny side of this movie follows from the two heavy accents of the two main actors, mainly the one of Troisi.