ridiculous rating

Really Surprised!

Let's be realistic.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Oh how i wish i could save people from watching this film. It is sooooo cheesy, soo over the top, i wanted to laugh, as in a serge leone film, but unfortunately the director here was dead serious. arggggh. felt like a series of commercials. ALL it had going for it, and I mean ALL, was some beautiful scenery shots including some great Roman buildings. Other than that, if you are a sophisticated film goer,you will buck at the melodramatic schmaltz (both of the repeated shots of bloody murders, the repetitive slow motion shots of bloody deaths, and the light-filtering-in-the gauzy- child's- bedroom shots with the vaseline- coated lens.) Fortunately I could fast forward through all the stupid predictable dreck.If I save one person from watching this, i will feel so much better.

Italy went through a wave of kidnapping not long ago where wealthy citizens, or their children, were taken away by professional bandits. Most of the people behind this type of crime were from the Calabria area. In fact, it was an industry where some poor people without scruples stood to make a lot of money by extorting rich Italians with the crime they were committing. These evil men would keep the unfortunate victims hidden and would only return them to their families when they received payment. Some times the kidnappers killed their prey when something went wrong.The film concentrates on two enemy families of kidnappers. When Vito's father kills two opposing members of another gang, their family comes to get revenge and kills six members of the young boy's family. Vito runs away to go look for a brother at a cave, where he discovers a boy, who has been kidnapped, lying dead. When he discovered the boy, he also found a knapsack with an address printed in it, which he assumes is the dead boy's.The film follows Vito as he flees from the enemy that wants to kill him in amazing fashion. This peasant boy, who probably hasn't left his backward area, finds uncanny ways to avoid being killed and outsmarts the guys that are pursuing him. Eventually, he ends up at the house of the dead boy, where the distraught mother believes her kidnapped son has returned home, to the horror of her husband, who sees the truth.This Italian film, directed by Carlo Carlei, is a document about that era of that tragic period in the country. Mr. Carlei paces his story well in the way he sets the chase of the boy as he tries to evade his pursuers. Manuel Colao is perfect as the young boy. Francesca Neri and Jacques Perrin are seen as the parents of the kidnapped boy.The film will not disappoint because it shows the sure hand of a director, Carlo Carlei, who takes us for an exciting ride.

Honestly is one of my all time 10 best italian movies ever. I cant understand how a director like Carlo Carlei it`s not working in Hollywood after this one, like G.Tornattore o R.Bennigni this movie is a great movie and also very original, touching and well shooted. E X C E L E N T italian movie E X E L E N T Carlei "avanti caro"

This film was a bit too Disneyesque for me. The requisite beautiful child, equipped with intellect, wisdom, incredible luck---everything but a dog. With three years of school, he reads remarkably well. Fresh from a Sicilian olive orchard, he's street wise enough to have Rome eating out of his hand. He's the only target that's too small for the bad guys to hit unerringly with every shot. To make matters worse, befouled with needlessly explicit violence, which kicks it out of the Disney Channel, straight into Action-Max.