Coup de foudre à l'italienne

I didn't know what to expect when I went in to see "Everybody Wants to Be Italian," I knew it was romantic comedy that was centered around a relationship between two people who are not Italian, but pretend to be because they think that's the other one's ethnicity.

Jake is the owner of fish store who has been stalking his ex-girlfriend who is now married with three kids, for the past 8 years, he even thinks one of the kids is his.

His employees(John Enos, John Kapelos, Richard Libertini) who are also his therapists/partners in crime decide to take some decisive action and fix him up with a beautiful girl named Maria,(Cerina Vincent) who they think is Italian.

The plan works to some degree and with the support of his other friends around Boston, including Penny Marshall in a brief cameo, they are able to get Jack to see the light and pay attention to Maria. Lot's of good one liners to keep the audience laughing throughout, most of the theater had full belly laugh out loud moments, which was good to hear.

I credit writer-director Jason Todd Ipson for keeping things simple and true to the natural process of dating and life, the girls always want what they can't have. Really easy on the eyes is Cerina Vincent as Marsia, who manages to shine despite typically being cast in horror films. This one is much better than advertised and one to watch this fall.

When jake is having trouble getting over his (married) ex-girlfriend, his friends fix him up with marisa. It's pretty much an episode of three's company. Jake isn't honest from the start. He tells one lie to cover up another lie, and of course it snowballs. Marisa also tells a lie. What a mess. Painful to watch with all the all the lying. Of course it's going to all blow up. We don't really root for anyone, since everyone is lying. John enos was actually born in boston, but some of the fake new england accents are pretty bad. About an hour in, we find out that jake is suddenly a genius business man, making big bucks. But he can't seem to show up for his shifts at his own store. And jake isn't even be a good friend to marisa. Why does she hang out with him? Later, a small child just screams and screams. So annoying. The script needed fixing up for sure. Some pretty adult language here. And lots of rude, stereotype things said by jake and his buddies at the fish shop; to be fair, it was released in 2007. A small role for richard libertini, from all of me and fletch. A walk-on by the awesome penny marshall. They should have let her direct! Written and directed by jason ipson. This one is currently showing on MAX. It's okay. Has some funny moments.

I too had similar reactions in the theater I went to this week. Audience I would say liked the film, let's say a 3 out of 5 star and what I have read online so far especially from the NYC critics is like a 1 out of 5, there is no way this film is a 1, what are you watching or are we so used to what Hollywood has been running out there every five days that we forget about movies like The Godfather, hello, do you remember the score, it wasn't like it kept flowing, there were times where you could fall asleep, but no one is questioning one of the best movies of all time, now this is no Godfather, but the cast, Jay Jablonski, Cerina Vincent, Marisa Petroro, John Enos, and John Kapelos, all inter-act on screen nicely, the story line and characters ARE believable, have you ever spent time listening to Italian guys talk, this is the real deal. Call it what you will but my Italian step-father agrees 100% he loved the film. I hope the general population will not read some of the so called, "Critic's" and question exactly what they are talking about, they get paid for these comments?

There are a couple of flaws with this film. It feel slightly untidy and rough around the edges. It obviously lacked funding and was clearly targeted at the Sat night American market. It lacks the strong script of an independent film, but also the big budget for a good cinematographer, or at least a screenwriter to tie up the loose ends.

I was expecting two distinctive things from this film - stereotypical Italians and one dimensional characters, orbiting the main cast and providing us with some ethnicity based comedy. At one point we see a man in a white vest shouting from a window!!! The second aspect of the film I was expecting was two lovable main characters. Unfortunately Cerina Vincent failed to soften at any point during the film. I understand this is how her character is written, but any characteristic which would endear her to the audience failed to materialise, even towards the end of the film. Jay Jablonski put in a surprisingly good performance as a rude, childish but ultimately likable stalker. He just about managed to rescue his character despite the poor script. Unfortunately his character lacked emotional consistency and therefore came across as slightly mentally ill, perhaps with a touch of schizophrenia.

If you like hearing Italian dialogue in a film, (which was all very authentic, apart from the two old people), then go see Everybody Wants to Be Italian, but there isn't much else holding it together.

I'm not sure which is more infantile-the dialogue or the acting. It's hard to believe that this monstrosity was even okayed for release. NEXT????