Giallo

The high point in the film comes midway in the form of Adrian Brody's childhood flashback: the camera heaves this side and that inside an amber-lit room as though floating in the air while a music box lullaby that brings back memories of Goblin's School at Night theme from Profondo Rosso chimes in the background. Other than that, the movie might as well have been called "Routine Slasher" because there's nothing that recalls the glorious days of the Italian giallo here, no wink or homage or black-gloved killer stalking distraught heroines in kitsch/chic Rome apartments, countryside villas, and medieval architecture and certainly none of the Technicolor phantasmagoria Argento and his peers conjured on celluloid 30 years ago because anyone who has followed Argento's career knows he has been working in dark muted DV canvases for the past 10 years, this absence of style flooded with wooden acting, bad English from non-English speaking actors, and a script the sum of plot contrivance happenstance and logic jumps. Some will argue these have been staples of Argento's career and I will disagree because their place has always been peripheral to a certain grand guignol aesthetic by whose outrageousness, stylistic or otherwise, not only have they been relegated to the margins but they have made perfect "sense" there in the margins as part of Argento's style (or Italian horror film-making in general). If Mother of Tears was a bold step in the direction of Phenomena's schizophrenic conclusion, this is a step backwards to the undistinguished workmanlike nature of Il Cartaio and Ti Piace Hitchcock. Everything here is generic. The score sounds like Batman Returns throwaways (Claudio Simonetti's absence is sorely felt), the villain is a curious mixture of pathetic and creepy, Argento's stylized violence is conspicuously absent. This is a serial killer movie trying to balance between crime procedural and slasher such as one may find in Lionsgate's STD catalogue. If you're looking for the giallo homage the title promises, you'll find it in Sleepless. This is a routine affair not worthy of the master's name or his fans' time and money.

Giallo (2009)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Looking at the title and seeing Argento's name, you might expect this film to be a giallo but you'd be mistaken. Set in Italy, a woman gets kidnapped by a psychopath killer so her sister (Emmanuelle Seigner) teams up with an Inspector (Adrien Brody) to try and locate her. There's no question that Argento's career has been very hit and miss over the past twenty-years but I've been pretty kind to him finding many of the films to be entertaining for what they are. At the same times he's made some really bad stuff like PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? and while this one here isn't that bad, it's still lower level stuff and it's a shame considering I'm sure many were hoping for a better project. The biggest problem is the screenplay that is downright horrid as it gives us no characters to care for, an idiotic killer and some really lame dialogue. The story jumps around so much that at times it feels as if the movie doesn't know what it's trying to do or what type of story it's trying to tell. The sister characters come across as people we can't really stand so we don't care if they live or die. The Inspector character isn't any better as the screenplay tries to give him some backstory yet it's nothing interesting or deep enough to make us care. Then there's the killer known as "Yellow" because of his skin color. I'm really not sure what they were thinking but it just doesn't work. The film throws in some rather tame death sequences with many of them happening off screen. We do get a few gory shots that are pretty over the top but nothing we haven't seen countless times before. Female characters have never been a strong point in any Argento film and that continues here as I really didn't care for Seigner's character or her performance. Watching Brody here you have to keep pinching yourself that he's an Oscar-winner as he really doesn't come off looking too good. Then we have Argento who must have lost any of his stylish eye because there's very little. All in all, this is a pretty big mess and a real disappointment for me as I was one of the few who really enjoyed his third entry in the Three Mothers series. I do hope he continues to make more films but hopefully they'll turn out better than this.

On the part of promotion this title couldn't been better. Dario Argento, the master of old school giallo's made a flick called, Giallo. For all those who think that he isn't softened they will be disappointed by this thriller, Yes, this is definitely not a giallo.

"Giallo" films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camera-work and unusual musical arrangements. The literary whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy's longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. They also generally include liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

None of this is included here. Why it is called Giallo, which means yellow is because once the killer is revealed, in the first part, you can see that his face is yellow due hepatitis.

I didn't had any difficulty with the flick itself which do has a few typical gory Argento shots but the acting of Emmanuelle Seigner (Linda) couldn't convince me. Adrian Brody (Inspector Enzo Avolfi) did look like those typical smoking Italian detectives and reminded me of a Tom Savini look-a-like.

I understand that Argento geeks will hate this but it's worth watching. A mediocre flick.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

When the man responsible for some of the best giallos ever made directs a movie simply titled Giallo, then I suppose one might reasonably expect him to fully embrace the conventions of the genre (many of which he was instrumental in establishing). Instead, Argento only loosely follows the giallo format, the grimy approach he adopts being more akin to the recent US 'torture porn' trend, a fact that has unsurprisingly caused something of a critical backlash from fans of Italian horror.

But although Giallo clearly doesn't warrant its title, and, devoid of his usual visual flair and labyrinthine storytelling, is far from the director's best work, neither is it totally deserving of the drubbing it has received.

The film moves along briskly enough, switching regularly between crime and police procedure to ensure that boredom never sets in; the hero cop-with-a-dark-past, Enzo Avolfi, is played with conviction by Adrien Brody; Emmanuelle Seigner makes for a decent enough side-kick; the rather lovely Elsa Pataky is required only to look scared and beautiful, but does so convincingly; and the strangely familiar killer is delightfully daft—an ugly, dummy-sucking, bandana-wearing taxi-driver with yellow skin (caused by a dose of Hepatitis C, inherited from his junkie mother) and a hatred of all things beautiful.

Argento also finds time for a few seriously nasty moments, including a graphic hammer to the skull scene, a nasty bit of finger pruning (resulting in plenty of pumping blood), and a wince-inducing moment involving shards of broken glass.

Whilst it is true that Argento's typical sense of style might be lacking on this occasion, there is still enough to enjoy about this film to make it worth a go—after all, even Argento at his worst is better than many other directors at their best.

Some Japanese girls visit an Opera in Italy. Afterward, one of them hails a cab. The cab driver takes her through unexpected streets and when she protests, he abducts her.

Later, a beautiful model hails the same cab and the same thing happens to her. The cabbie takes her to some basement. The Japanese girl is also there. But she is in bad shape, covered in blood and agonizing. The cabbie tortures her some more and then dumps her body.

The model's sister contacts the police and meets some reluctant and rude detective. There's been a string of these crimes and he's tasked with the investigation. He also has flashbacks of when he was a child and saw his mother brutally killed by some guy. The sister basically gets to shadow him as the investigation proceeds. And we do learn more about the killer and the cop as well.

When the body of Japanese woman is found they arrive in time. She's barely alive and utters some words which the cop records. It's a Buddhist prayer and also the word "yellow." The woman concludes that "yellow" could be a reference to the killer. He's yellow, he's got jaundice. Off they go to a clinic to demand to see patient files. That's when they see him running away. He escapes. The cop gets his address and goes to the killer's house and finds evidence, but no girls.

The model in the meantime has escaped, but she doesn't make it far. The killer visits her sister and she tries to help him in exchange for the model but then the cop shows up and a shootout ensues. But the girl is still missing.

Giallo, as other Argento and Italian movies made for the international market, doesn't convince. The movie looks like they're using 80s equipment. Audio, dubbing, are a disaster. The script is full of goofy lines, and acting overall doesn't convince. It does have some of the Giallo style, especially the beginning and the end. Elsa Pataky is lovely of course and the only thing truly enjoyable about Giallo. There's a bit of violence, a bit of gore, but not enough. We needed more victims and a stronger movie overall. There's no sense of dread. It's not the same to grab a girl that's already in a cab as opposed to seeing the villain stalk her, chase her, etc. Still, Giallo could have been worse. As always with Argento's recent movies, they don't fulfill one's unrealistic expectations but it's still worth a watch.