lasttimeisaw Before ascending to his insurmountable zenith with LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1997, 8/10), Roberto Benigni's THE MONSTER is a winsome farce about an innocent layabout Loris (Benigni) is wrongly identified as a serial women-slaughterer at large, in order to catch him red-handed, the police force assigns a young policewoman Jessica (Braschi) to go to great lengths to entice him into the irrepressible perpetration (ultimately, a red riding hood costume), therefore, a spate of funny sketches ensure while Loris' resistance is ultra-impenetrable. Benigni is a superb comedian, a do-it-himself practitioner, skilfully concocts lewd yet never graphically offensive sex-related slapstick in this larger-than-life scenario, individually, each skit is authentically rib-tickling, the opening one which causes the false impression for the entire film, is that Loris confuses a middle-age woman Claudia (Pieri Palombi) for a nymphomaniac, and predictably his overt seduction turns into sexual harassment. It is funny no doubt, but a bit too cheesy to be taken seriously since each laughter is arbitrarily calculated, easily anticipated, and provoked by mere happenstance - this is the key tone of the film, all the antics are in your face, but you cannot complain too much since they are well-crafted. However, the wholesomeness of the story fail to survive under the barrage of giggling-inducing escapades, there is no credible rationality in finding the whodunit, the chemistry between Loris and Jessica never reach its threshold of romance, but the husband-wife team makes it up by the synchronous walking-like-midgets loveliness, witnessed by a distinguished resident (Girotti) every time. Rest of the cast is uniformly one-dimensional yet fundamentally enjoyable, Michel Blanc is hysterical as the doctor who is determined to diagnose Loris in person, the segment where he and his pills-chomping wife Joland (Lavanant) visit Loris and Jessica for dinner is the high-water mark for paranoid ridicule. Jean-Claude Brialy is the testy proprietor, Ivano Marescotti is Loris' sole business supplier, Laurent Spielvogel is the livid police chief and Franco Mescolini is his amiable Chinese teacher, perhaps one of them is the culprit? The exaggeration of physical gestures and the Italian style of uninterrupted monologue may not be appealing to all its audience over the world, some minor goofs (e.g. the stalking video camera is ludicrous enough to only capture Loris' escape route while completely oblivious of the chaser, the antique dealer) are to some extent detrimental to the core of the story.On the other hand, one should not nitpick a feel-good comedy, which is the most demanding genre for filmmakers because every culture has its unique language of humor, a true universally appreciated one is like a needle in s haystack, and THE MONSTER is almost there, it is among the very rarefied above-average hierarchy to say the very least.

newmanarts-1 Il Mostro by the Italian master, Roberto Benigni, is his funniest among some very funny movies. The earlier comment to watch it in Italian with subtitles is essential. Some of the humour, both spoken and physical slapstick is a little hard at first for North Americans. Once you fall into the Italian sense of humour it will have you on the floor, Roberto Benigni is the twenty first century's Charlie Chaplin. It is optimum for enjoyment if you have lived in Italy, but not required. Go to Italy afterwards! Like Felleni and the Bertolucci brothers, Benigni reflects a lot of what is intrinsically Italian.Il Mostro is about a mix up, but what comedy is not, it is really about Roberto, the words, the way the words are said, the body gestures and his mastery of playing. You can fall in love with his visual poetry... then learn Italian. I also recommend the unsung, underrated, Son of Pink Panther, it gives a new twist to the Sellers' humour. It's all that Sellers was and more, this is the true successor to the Pink Panther series! If you like the style of Il Mostro then try the earlier Johnny Stecchino, it is classic Benigni as well!

criztu the movie is built around Loris, the character played by Roberto Benigni. who delivers best performance. he is 100% belevable 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 not yet successful with neither, 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), 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.

jbull-4 After seeing the trailer for this film, in France and in French, I thought that it should be given a wide berth. But I watched it with a friend one night and still laugh about it 10 years later. It was brilliant. Absolute pure genius. While the scenes looked ridiculous in the trailer, they were very funny in the context of the film. The story is simple, innocent bumbler is mistaken for a serial killer, but the talent of Benigni, both in his writing and his acting, makes the error plausible and for a great film. The scene on the scaffolding is one of my all time favorite comedy moments and the several unexpected meetings with a neighbour, whilst Benigni is walking along on his haunches (trying to avoid his caretaker as he is behind in his rent)are both funny and very touching, especially when Nicoletta Braschi comes on the scene. Just watch it and enjoy. But only if it's in it's original version, Italian. Otherwise don't!