Ammore e malavita

The best Italian film of 2018. Original and ironic musical. But this is not just a musical, it is everything you would want from an entertainment movie and more. The musical tempos are managed perfectly and the songs are well sung and are never boring. Great cast.

"West Side Story" the recent gangster epic "Love and Bullets" is not. I'm a big fan of Giampaolo Morelli (Song of Napoli, Inspector Coliandro) so I recently viewed Love and Bullets on MHZ - a lengthy musical comedy set in Naples by the Manetti Brothers. I would have preferred a shorter action film without singing, as I found the first half of Love and Bullets garish to see and strident to hear (a marred, badly made-up corpse breaks out in song while inside his coffin) but, mid-point, once the plot is established and the hitman Ciro (Morelli) takes the lead away from his boss, the so-called Fish King, I was reminded of "Knight and Day" - a martial arts spy spoof I thoroughly enjoyed. Morelli as the unfortunate Ciro hasn't chosen murder - murder chose Ciro. Love and Bullets is about loyalty no matter the circumstances, lost love and misery despite stunning natural surroundings - the Bay of Naples. I think the music and some scenes such as that singer-in-the-coffin bit plus the busload of singing and dancing tourists could have been eliminated, with the focus trained on the action storyline. But who am I to argue with success? The Manetti Brothers were showered with Italian cinematic honors as a result of Love and Bullets.

There are like 3-4 different movie's genre. New directors that just pop up:)