Life can be boring!

Rating: 4/10 (18 October 1999)

The second half of this disappointing movie ran like a bad episode of Hogan's Heroes. See Hogan make fun of Sgt. Schultz by translating his instructions into some zany nonsense! See that wacky Hogan using the death camp's PA system to send funny messages to his wife - then here him say "oops they're coming" and run away laughing! See Hogan freely move around the camp with complete carte blanche all the while concealing his little Sgt. Labeau even though he's the only kid in the barracks! See the fun-loving Nazi, Colonel Klink, invite Hogan to be a waiter for an important banquet and then get upset when Hogan doesn't know the answer to a riddle, "Hooooggaaaannn!"
Ok, so Bob Crane does not have the comedic timing of Roberto Benigni, but the shallowness of the story is the same. What started out as a light, funny, pratfall-laden Benigni comedy turned into a pretentious scattershot bore of a movie. The relationship between Benigni and Joshua was as deep as the Three Stooges episode where Curly performs all sorts of silly antics to get a little baby to stop crying.
Really, people, I don't think I'm being too picky here. The acting, aside from Benigni who can be genuinely funny, was awful. The woman who played Benigni's wife delivered her lines as if she was reading cue cards and the little bambino, although very cute, kept looking at his real life mamma or handler or whatever, off camera.
Obviously, I do not reccomend this movie, but if you are in the mood for an uplifting, inspirational and funny film with an Italian flavor, by all means go rent Cinema Paradiso instead.