Jeremy lawrence Johnny Stecchino review by Jeremy LawrenceJohnny Stecchino is a delightfully funny piece of Italian film history, with flamboyant characters and American influences derived from such roots as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keatan and Woodie Allen. Although the jokes, for the most part are derived from Italian culture, their routes display common beliefs and experiences of all cultures. They play on the stereotypes of Italian culture perceived by the rest of the world. The main character Dante, played by Benigni, has a comedic and arrogant personality. He miraculously finds himself repeatedly in life threatening situations. However, he some how manages to get himself out unscathed, and due to his character the audience cannot help but laugh at his arrogance. This film displays master comedic work and the work of a brilliant framer using every inch of his presidium arch to set up and deliver the plethora of gags. Throughout the film each gag is set up primarily by setting a visual mood that allows the viewer to not only feel the joke at hand but also to live the joke. This allows the joke to run deeper into the viewer's knowledge and belief system. For instance, in the film Dante is preparing to snort a line of cocaine. Almost everyone on earth, who has watched films or television, knows what the white powder is and how the drug is used. In the stories, when Dante does not know what the powder is his uncle tells him that the powder is a drug to cure his diabetes. Through the film this knowledge is tested and the main character tries to pass the drug off as a cure for diabetes. Another of the new techniques used was that of editing as well as visuals to develop the 4 D's (Desire, Deception, Discovery, and destiny) of a traditional comedic structure to develop the comedic persona of all the gags and to tie all them together. In doing this Benigni used many traditional techniques of cross cutting and of cutting to show the action, not cutting to develop the act. Actually Benigni uses the long take, which, according to Charlie Chaplin are the way comedies are suppose to be shot, for example a shot that would normally be inter cut with close ups, such as the car in reverse gag. In the frame, Dante enters his bus and the audience is led to think that he will back up. As he turns to look at the camera in order to back up, the foliage can be scene through the window pressed closer to the camera. This makes it obvious that he is actually driving forward and not backing out and in the same shot Dante's expression draws us to his gaze without rack focusing (rabidly changing focus from one object to another). All of the visual and dialectical techniques demonstrate the comedic genius of Benigni. Although the jokes are not universal to all cultures, Benigni creates a mood of light comedy and intellectual triumph which in part explains the success of Johnny Stecchino.

ccthemovieman-1 Roberto Benigni, who went to achieve international stardom with "Life Is Beautiful," plays two roles in this comedy. The story is about an innocent man who is dead ringer for a gangster-informant-in hiding. Benigni plays both roles.It's a decent movie, a low-key comedy that has some funny moments but would have been much better had it been chopped down about 15 minutes. It tends to drag a bit during the second half. Benigni, as the "wimp," is a very charming guy and one that's easy to root for, but the rest of the characters in the film are just so-so. It's odd to ever see the usually high-strung Benigni as a lower-key person.Surprisingly, this is an "R" rated comedy, and that's because of the language. I rented this once, but would see it again, especially since it''s now available on DVD.

therubicon I think I learned Italian from this movie, I watched it so many times.I've simply never loved a movie as so cute and funny as this, its well worth tracking it down, Its still pretty available if you know the right places to look.Roberto and Nicoletta are perfect together on and off screen, truly a mating of Eagles as the Romans would say.take the perfect vaudeville act, Where you have some idiot who is just a heart of Gold, mix in a scheming Mafia donna, take a bunch of Italians in good suits add a little illegal narcotics done by politicans.Steal a banana or two, and then change places with a murderous Cut throat assasino. What do you get? Superb cinema.

Philip Van der Veken Even though Roberto Benigni is very popular on this website, I doubt that many people know more than one movie of the man. Sure, everybody has heard of "La vita è bella" before, but if you ask them to name another one of his Italian movies, I'm pretty sure they can't. And yet the man is a good actor. Especially when it comes to comedies he's far above average. Not that you have to believe me of course, but when you've seen this "Johnny Stecchino", or "Johnny Toothpick" as it is called in English, you'll probably say that I'm right.Dante is a simple and kind-hearted man who is happy driving the school bus for a group of mentally handicapped children. But his life isn't exactly very spectacular as he lives on his own, doesn't have a girlfriend or wife and only seems to have one friend, one of the handicapped children with whom he likes to steal an occasional banana. When he's almost run over by Maria, a beautiful and rich lady, all this seems to change. She seems to fall in love with him head over heals and she soon invites him to her gigantic villa in Palermo, Sicily. But what he doesn't know that he's part of an evil plot. He looks exactly the same as Maria's gangster husband, Johnny Stecchino, who's life is in big danger as the rest of the crime syndicates want him dead and buried. They have invited Dante in the hope that he will be killed instead of Johnny Stecchino...To fully appreciate this movie I guess you have to be ready for this kind of humor. It all feels a lot like slapstick and I doubt if everybody likes that all that much. Personally I liked it in this movie. It gave it all a bit of an interesting, but surreal touch. But even though the story and its humor feel a bit like slapstick, it still gives a decent feeling of what Italy is like. They like good food and wine, they like a party so now and then, but corruption and crime aren't all that far away. This script could easily have been used to make a very good drama with it, but I admit that the humor in it makes it a bit more special and noticeable. What also helps to remember this movie are Roberto Benigni's and Nicoletta Braschi's performances. Especially Benigni did a nice job in this double role. He gave both characters a completely different feeling and only a slightly different look, which made it even more interesting, because you certainly had to stay focused.All in all this is a very good comedy that proves that Benigni isn't just a one-hit wonder. The story, the acting, the humor,... make this a movie that is certainly worth a try. Personally I really liked it and that's why I give it at least a 7.5/10.