Il mostro

It seems that Roberto Begnini can't go wrong when it comes to comedy. In a way, he might be the last / only great comedian of our times, who writes, acts, and (usually)directs films at the same time. He alone keeps alive this classic tradition of films, which genre's rules are invented and perfected by such greatness's as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, not to mention director giant Federico Fellini. This one is also a warm-hearted, humane, and really funny, which gives an unusual yet very likable mix, especially in times of so-called humorous films with endless quantities of stupid fart jokes and toilet humor. There might be some flaws however, but none too disturbing. Recommended!

The movie is built around Loris, the character played by Roberto Benigni. who delivers his best performance. He is 100% believable in this role. The movie has almost all classic ingredients of a great comedy and they work.

Roberto Benigni's character captures that facet of most of us men at some point in our lives. A lazy and not so well organized guy, far from hansom looking, who'd like to have a lot of women and money, but is not yet successful with either, improvising plans and schemes to get them fast and easy, getting himself in trouble instead, and plunging into more trouble the more he tries to sort things out.

Eventually the police is after him (the police surveying tape is hilarious), and as goofy as Benigni's character is, the police match him with style. They dispatch a bait to unleash the monster within, and Loris has to go great lengths to avoid unleashing that monster =))

Watch this movie in Italian with subtitles, don't let some lousy dubbing spoil your experience.

Roberto Benigni's "The Monster" is a laugh-a-second romp that is truly reminiscent of the greater works of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Peter Sellers. Benigni stars as a loser who works for a mannequin company who unwittingly becomes caught up with the authorities who believe that he is the titled character, a man who has been raping and murdering women all over the city. Naturally, Benigni is not the guy they are after but all the strange coincidences make him appear to be the criminal. Undercover beauty Nicoletta Braschi (Benigni's real-life wife) tries to trap Benigni by enticing him in the most creative ways. The film is great fun, but it is very adult-oriented with sexual situations and innuendos galore. Overall "The Monster" is a really great film and Benigni fans will love it more than most others. Plot resolution late hurts the film, but not enough to keep it from being very successful overall. 4 stars out of 5.

What an excellent movie 'Il Mostro' is! It is absolutely certain that it will destroy you from the first moment.

Make sure you watch it in Italian audio though. A lot of Benigni's (as of course any other actor's) performance comes out of projecting his lines and Benigni always sounds hilarious.

And don't expect to see 'scary movie' here. This is quality comedy, with great script and a genius actor.

Don't miss it!

9/10

This is one of the funniest movies of all time. Roberto Benigni is the definitive next-generation Charlie Chaplain. His use of camera angles to get the dummies in compromising positions, depending on how it's seen, and the way he can include so many different characters so effectively in the movie is amazing. My favorite scene is when the Detective is analyzing Loris when Loris leaves the restaurant. "Now he is punishing it - 'No, not in public'" and "And we can all see what this means." If you want to see it, I've seen the film at Jumbo video in the foreign films section. I advise that you go out and rent it IMMEDIATELY! I gave it a ten, and so will you.