Johnny Stecchino

The genius with which Benigni weaves plots is most clearly displayed in this film. Nothing in the film is left to chance. Every scene, every action is (eventually) connected to others in a hilarious web. I've seen this movie 6 or 7 times. My wife wants to rent it again! and I will watch it for the 7th or 8th, having fun and marveling at the intricacies of the plot.

An early episode is a silly parlor game called "the cabinet member's wife." What is that about? What's funny about that. It isn't, but the game returns about three-quarters of the way through with surprising twists.

People who don't watch foreign films because they don't like reading subtitles are missing a world of great films, and this is one of the best.

I just watched the 1991 Italian movie "Johnny Stecchino" (or "Johnny Toothpick") on video. One of my all-time favorite films is "La Vita è bella" ("Life is Beautiful", 1997), another film that Roberto Benigni also directed, co-wrote, and played the lead role in. When I saw a preview of Benigni's comedy "Johnny Stecchino", I had to see the movie.

Benigni is truly a gifted man with comic elements that remind me in this film of the Marx Brothers in physicality and Mr. Bean in amazing simple ignorance. He plays a dual role. As Dante, a bus driver for a group of retarded young adults, he is hopelessly clueless and the highlight of his daily routine seems to be playing a silly trick (every day?! won't the fruit sellers catch on?!) resulting in his stealing a banana for his breakfast. He also plays a mafioso type, Johnny Stecchino, who has snitched on his fellow criminals and is now hiding for fear of his life.

Dante runs into lovely Maria (Nicoletta Braschi) who is really Johnny's wife, but she feigns an inexplicable attraction for Dante. She invites Dante to her grand villa in Palermo (Sicily), where we understand her true plot to have the lookalike simpleton killed so she can live happily with her Johnny.

The film is a comedy of misunderstandings with scenes of stolen bananas, introducing a shocked Roman Catholic Cardinal to cocaine (mistakenly as a diabetic medicine), the two look-alikes running into each other and the criminal pretending to be a mirror to keep himself hidden, a group of seeming mafiosi being led by Dante in singing a children's song enunciating the sounds that various animals make (is this an inside Italian joke, as this reminds me of the 1991 Italian film "Caro Diario" - see <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0109382/usercomments-12> ?!), and more. Though I wish that Johnny didn't use offensive language, it was otherwise a zany and funny film showing off Benigni's comic genius. Santa Cleopatra!

--Dilip Barman, May 21, 2004

7/10

I thoroughly recommend this film. Some jokes may go over the head of non-Italian speakers but it shouldn't really ruin your enjoyment of a classic Benigni film. My favourite scene was when "lo zio" (the uncle) was driving Dante back from Palermo train station and explaining the problems of Sicilian life to him - I nearly p*****d myself!

I first saw this movie several years ago as a "movie of the week"...what a joy! I had the film specially ordered and to date have watched it at LEAST a dozen times...I cannot get enough of this charming film! Roberto Benigni and his wife, Nicoletta Braschi are the perfect team. And the co-stars are just as fabulous...this is definitely a team effort! Most highly recommended!

For anyone who questions Roberto Benigni's talent as a comic, rent Johnny Stecchino. In Life is Beautiful Benigni showed us his gift as a director/storyteller/artist, in Johnny Stecchino Roberto Benigni demonstrates why a nation of 70 million (Italy) have loved this man long before North America saw Life is Beautiful. Johnny Stecchino was written and directed by Benigni and exemplifies his genius as a physical comic and comedy writer. The story is hilarious and will have you dying of laughter. By the way, if you really have no knowledge the Italian language you may miss some key one-liners which simply cannot be translated but you will get the overall "gist" of this extremely funny film.