Ginostra

I had pretty high hopes of this film, primarily due to it having a couple of decent actors. Unfortunately the whole thing doesn't work at all. The attempt at a plot is just terrible. Some of the editing is very bad, for example, Keitel standing on a elevated road, and a second later getting on a tram down at ground level with no explanation as to how he got down there (that part's probably on the cutting room floor.) I also think some of the problem is it tries to be an artistic film but doesn't have any interesting plots or story, except for the tiniest interesting part at the swimming pool. I ended up just laughing at the stupidity of the whole thing.

This is possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. A story would have been helpful and if the director knew what direction he wanted the movie to go that would also be a good thing. The acting was also poor at best.

My advice is: Don't bother. PT

In Italy, in the Sicilian island of Ginostra, Matt Benson (Harvey Keitel) is a FBI agent assigned for the protection and investigation of Ettore Greco (Mattia de Martino), the son of Stefano Greco, a cooker of the Mafia executed with his family by one of the local boss. The boy witnessed the crime and Matt wants also to find out who has double-crossed him in the protection of the boy's father. This long story is very boring, having a confused screenplay without credibility. Who could imagine an experienced American agent, who does not speak Italian, bringing his family for a period of vacation in Mafia territory while performing an important investigation of a crime committed by one of the mobster boss? The great cast and the beautiful `sightseeing' of wonderful landscapes in the Italian islands and the gorgeous eyes and lips of Francesca Neri exhaustively showed by the director Manuel Pradal is not enough to make this movie attractive. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): ` O Vulcão Ginostra' (` The Volcano Ginostra')

"Ginostra" is a huge mess.

The Plot: FBI Agent Matt Benson (Keitel) travels to Italy to help a young boy from the mobsters that killed his family run by Del Piero (Stanton). There's also weird nuns (One of them played by Argento) involved with a volcano.....

From the opening scene the movie has already overstayed it's welcome. The movie is just abrupt and edited terribly. Scenes just start\end with no rhythm. Andie MacDowell has nothing to do, and Argento even less, even with the 2-hour plus running time. The best scene in the movie is the confrontation between Keitel and Stanton. The oddest part of the movie is: (Get ready...) One of the mobsters puts a bomb in a sheep and it blows up. I'm not kidding.

No wonder this movie has been on the shelf for over 5 years. It deserved it. Maybe it should've stayed there longer after some editing.

It's only worth sitting though if you're a Keitel completist. Anybody else stay away. Don't be fooled by the quality cast.

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I saw this movie at the Toronto Filmfest and had such high hopes... soon to be dashed. The plot is both confused and boring, leaving the audience incapable of identifying with the characters. The backdrop of an erupting volcano tries to give the film tension but merely confuses the storyline. Harvey Keitel manages to make some of the movie at least watchable but this movie rated high on the numb-bum-omiter... for a movie pegged at 135 mins it felt like 4 hours.

The whole audience was left in stunned silence at the end of the movie. When the Q and A started the director was asked "what were the evil nuns about? " he didn't seem to know what they were there for either... I'd like to think it was a nod to Monty Python ;-)