Missed the mark

Rating: 4/10 (13 October 2014)

Actually I'm not sure where the mark was exactly was this a comedy? A drama? Half and half? I wanted to like it, expected to like it, but really, really didn't.
To the folks who have been calling this "Hogan's Heroes" it really isn't that either. "Hogan's Heroes" knew exactly what it was: a silly, impossible sit-com. It was never presented as or intended to be taken as something theoretically possible, while "Life is Beautiful" seems to be doing just that. But the reason I didn't like this movie isn't because I found the subject matter offensive. It simply wasn't very good. (Just for the record, I like "Hogan's Heroes".)
For starters, I caught myself saying out loud (fortunately I was in my own living room), on several occasions, "Boy, are you annoying" directed at the star, Roberto Begnini. I'm a Rowan Atkinson fan, and I've read some pretty scathing reviews on his performances written by people he doesn't appeal to I think that's exactly how I feel about Begnini. I find him profoundly annoying and not in the least bit funny. The first half of the film was a real chore to sit through. But I can be pretty sure I'll never forget the Italian word for "princess", since he hollers it every two and a half minutes, so I guess I learned something.
As for the second half: completely and utterly unbelievable. No way. The concept was an interesting one, but it would never work: the child would need an IQ in the single digits to believe the "contest" story spouted by Begnini's character. Are we viewers to believe that all those men in the barracks with them are not too overworked, starved, and terrified to be perfectly happy to play this "game" along with Guido and his son? And at the end when the sentry takes Guido off to be shot, giving him the opportunity to do his Italian Mr. Bean impression one more time in front of his son why take him anywhere? Why not just shoot him on the spot? Neatness didn't count at that point; the Allies were at the gates, the Germans were fleeing, and there would have been no point in taking Guido to an out-of-the-way alcove to shoot him. In fact, it's likely he would have been ignored as the soldier ran for his own life. But that would have made for a non-Oscar ending, I suppose.
Seriously overrated film with a seriously overrated star. Thankfully it was free on streaming.