User reviews

Fun and well balance tragicomedy that deserve a wider audience (beyond Italy) because the topic is unfortunately international. Well acted and some twist here and there spiced up with some crazy stuff make this film pretty enjoyable!

I really liked the German original, so I watched this expecting it to be a different movie but in the same vein and of course with Mussolini. But I quickly realized that it's not a movie in the same vein, but essentially the exact same movie with the exact same plot. So if you have already seen "Er ist wieder da / Look Who's Back" there is really no point in watching this move, as you already know the entire plot.

Yet Hitler and Mussolini are not exactly interchangeable, but in this movie they might as well be as it makes very little to no changes to the original script. But since the original script wasn't written with Mussolini in mind, simply switching Hitler with Mussolini doesn't always work and almost always feels forced.

That said, it's not a bad movie. It just doesn't add anything new to the original aside from switching the main character to Mussolini. But if you haven't watched the original yet and would rather want to see an Italian movie than a German one, go for it. But otherwise stick with the German original (it really is the same movie anyway).

Let me start by saying that I really like Matano, but he's not an actor. Instead the actor that played Mussolini did an amazing job. I found some scenes really funny, for example the dog one. I liked a lot the ending sequence inside the car, where you can see normal people reactions to him. Makes you wonder if a government like his would work again, and if people would like it, since it seems that they want it. I know the movie is a remake/adaptation of another movie so I will check the other one soon in order to compare the two movies with one another. I belive to have read that it takes place in Germany and has Adolf Hitler in it.

The movie per se is not a bad movie, especially for its plot. Sadly, the plot is exactly the same as the German movie "Er Ist Wieder Da", of which this film should be a "remake".

Rather than a remake, the film looks like a tremendous copy, probably made with the hope of taking advantage of an idea which clearly was successful, speaking of earnings.

It could have been interesting if the movie, for instance, started with the same situation of its German "brother", but evolved differently. Instead, avery single situation, and every single evolution in the plot is taken from Er Ist Wieder Da. Basically, it's the same film with switched characters.

This said, let's ignore the terrible feeling of dejà vu which impends over the movie.

A (very) positive note is for the acting skills of the starring actor Massimo Popolizio, who with great ability reminds Mussolini in his gestures and language.

A negative note is for the co-starring actor, Francesco Matano, who apparently is not capable of being another character but himself. One could wonder if the choice of an actor with such arguable acting skills could be related just to his popularity as a (former?) web-star, in the hope of selling more tickets, without taking great care of the quality of the product.

This movie hides so much truth about today's society,all under the gentle and subtle humor. It is a non-politica movie,despite it being about Mussolini.

Who really knows what would happen if he came back... what he would think and say... Certainly some reactions in the film are focused and true. The Duce would find an Italy without identity, which has lost hope, "... with its head bowed staring at the screen of a telephone, in a state of perpetual coma, depressive, .... without dreams, at the mercy of the media social issues, which make you lonely, envious and full of resentment".

In any case, the film doesn't take off and loses, remaining anchored to David Wnendt's film, losing originality and credibility, attempting to fit the German script into the Italian adaptation.

Montanelli would not have liked this film which remains immature and easily takes refuge in comfortable morality rather than extricating itself from political construction. A real shame because an excellent opportunity was missed.

Fascism gave and took away from Italy. Today, as then, the Europe of the great democracies is a mess of incompetents, incapable of any long-term vision. Then the embargo of coal and other raw materials on the Bel Paese laid the foundations for the Rome-Berlin Axis, just as today the lack of pulse prevents us from guiding the continent towards clear and decisive choices.

These great democracies were able to make their voices heard in Africa and Asia, creating much worse social disasters, poverty and war, which still have their effects today.

I wonder with what courage they can still point to Italy and its past.

Quoting the film "I died to absolve the entire Italian people who would otherwise have been called to assume their responsibilities" "Democracy is a rotting corpse. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?" "Where is the Homeland!?"

One question, the last one that screams and hurts. Where is the homeland?

Torn apart by attacks, by political parties trying to dismember it, sold off to foreign multinationals in its excellence, humiliated by corruption and poverty, raped by mafia bullying, stabbed in the heart by pederast priests.

Everyone gets away with it.

The State is an impotent old man incapable of exercising its powers. Incapable of using them for the good of the nation but capable of abusing them to give to those who already have.

Where are the great works? Where is the development? Where are the cultural movements? Where is the self-love?

I don't want to go on too long but this is a political film.

It should have twisted the knife in the wound and instead it does exactly what is described in the film: it makes you laugh (not too much) because "the people need to laugh when the crisis makes itself felt..."

And we laugh!!!!!!!! It's better to hide your head in the sand!!! No? Let's laugh...let's laugh...

I want my homeland back!