Paging Mel Brooks....

Rating: 2/10 (21 June 2010)

Ugh! Roberto Benigni's attempts to use Chaplin-style humor as a balm to soothe nightmares about the Holocaust make a mockery of both him and the historical events his film depicts.
I'm not offended by the humor itself -- Mel Brooks proved that you can make Nazis funny. My problem with this movie is that the humor is done badly; Benigni is irritating and painfully unfunny. And when the film isn't trying to be a comedy, it's unbearably maudlin and sentimental.
"Life Is Beautiful," like "Cinema Paradiso," is a foreign film for people who otherwise never watch foreign films.
It's got a nice score, I'll give it that.
Grade: D