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Danger:Diabolik

Danger:Diabolik

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This movie is so bad it's terrific!
Review: Danger: Diabolik is one of those rare movies where situations and characters are so completely ludicrous that you'll end up in the emergency room being treated for cracked ribs and torn abdominal muscles from excessive gleeful laughter.Never mind the movie's presentation on MST3K; on its own Danger: Diabolik is wonderfully entertaining because it tricks your brain into thinking of ways to deride it, and I happen to love films that can do that. One notable cast member is Adolfo Celi, whom James Bond fans will recognize from Thunderball, but he appears here sans eyepatch and speaking with a less-than-amusing voice. Though on this outing while he's not throwing his fellow criminals into shark-infested pools he does have the inclination to drop those who disagree with him through a trap door on his aircraft, thus increasing fuel efficiency and lightening the workload for his ditzy, shapely flight attendant... One of the movie's greatest assets is its soundtrack. It's pure 60's. Listening to it is like taking a trip in a time machine and arriving in some world whose inhabitants did everything they could to brighten it up without all the comforts, gadgets and insights available to today's world. Totally awesome, man! This videotape is recorded in EP mode, so your tracking may need adjusting in order to maintain Stereo-lock. And sadly, it's in pan-and-scan format, so you can't get a really good look at Diabolik's underground lair with its rotating bed, seperate showers, gold-testing workshop, and its many painstakingly-crafted artificial stalactites dripping from the roof of the cavern like the tears of mirth from audience eyes. First-time viewers are in for a treat; repeat viewers will likely end up in the hospital again...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Im a Mister Bava Lova,Mario Bava Superstar!!
Review: Danger:Diabolik is based on the same Comics wich was very cool and Mario bava was the right man for a real action movie on Danger:Diabolik!
The Moviesets he created is so small but they looked like they cost lot of hundredthousand dollars, but the cost in real was maybe 1000 Dollar!??!
Its a great superhero movie with the typically colourimpression of Mario Bava, the master of Italian Cinema and the creator of the Giallo Thrillers.
Danger:Diabolik got some spectaculary and stunning action scenes,good looking chicks and a nice and cute superhero.
Im so happy that this movie was released on DVD!
Are you too?
Buy and you will be!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CHEESY, But from another time!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie! The effects are very dated, but watching it transported me to another time! You can see how different things where just 30 years ago!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The definitive "Easy-listening" movie.
Review: If you like Burt Bacharach, Ennio Morricone, if you loved Barbarella, Harry Palmer, etc... You can't ignore "Danger : Diabolik". I've been looking for this movie in Europe for 18 months, and finally ordered it form the USA. And this is the most stylish film I've ever seen. Poor scenario (but this is definitely enjoyable) with an amazing atmosphere. E-Type Jaguars, secret underground bases, mind-blowing music : this is how the world should be.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Danger Diabolik
Review: Italian director Mario Bava, better known for his horror films, seems to be playing off the whole spy spoof genre, only this time he adds a little twist. The "hero" of this film isn't trying to save the world; rather, he's a thief and killer dreaded by the world. He isn't fighting for the government, but against it. John Philip Law plays Diabolik, a criminal out to steal billions from the government, swingin' sixties style! And with the help of his steamy, wig-wearing girlfriend, no one will get in his way, not even the innocent. Check out Diabolik's hip underground pad and his huge bed of money. WOW! This movie is more appreciated by the senses than anything. The fab sixties decor will make your eyes light up and the swinging soundtrack will make your ears ring with delight! So if your interested in some eye and ear candy, rent this. But if you want something with a meaningful script that will get your mind fired, keep looking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Possibly the hero of James Bond, Matt Helm, and Flint.
Review: Long, long before there was Austin Powers, there was Diabolik, brought to us as only Italian schlockmaster Mario Bava could bring him.

And it was good.

Think BATMAN (1966) bent a little. Okay, bent a lot.

Remember how bad John Phillip Law was in The Love Machine? As Diabolik he's every bit as awful ---it's PERFECT! Throw in Adolfo Celi, and Michel Piccoli and can "International Man of Mystery" be far behind?

The cherry on top is one of the best (original) musical scores--right up there with Thunder Road.

And it was very good.

Action, fun, farce and quirky (defined).

Always the highest recommendation from me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Total enjoyment
Review: Once upon a time films were made with low budgets and heaps of imagination, and this is one of them. Though given a whopping $3M by the ego-maniac Dino de Laurentis (King Kong the atrocious remake) the genius Mario Bava brought this 60s beauty in at $400K. Even converted into today's hard currency it would be hard to conceive of a modern day director either struggling out of bed for such a miniscule sum, or ever bringing a film in under budget. Instead Bava treats the eye and the mind to a dazzling psychedelic modernist fantasy.
There seems to be a common notion that many directors of the past were somehow more stupid than the giant intellects of the cinema of today and that they had no comprehension of what they were doing. Bava knew exactly what he was making with this movie version of a popular European comic and that was to make a film that was fun.
Pitted against a world of old stilted politics, bumbling police and chalk-stripe-suited Mafia villains Diabolik, a cool ultra-thief with an underground lair to be envied by Dr No and every other evil genius, outwits his pursuers time and time again with a manic laugh, a delicious girl-friend and his 'n' hers Jaguar E-Types.
This film is a two-hour trip; the score is superb and the images have a vivid organic feel unachievable with today's over-processed CGI FX. If you love the visuals of Barbarella you'll love this. Bava, though, has a more cynical view of the world and in one scene presents us with a nightclub where villains ply the "innocent" hippies with drugs making them dance in hysterically funny ways that is just as an incisive critique of that era as it would be of some rave scenes today. Some things just don't change.
Sure if you want to adopt the brave stance of the post-modernist and assume the sophisticated position of The One Who Laughs At Bad Old Films then you'll get some kind of kick out of this. But you won't get anything like the kick you will by just relaxing into the brilliantly-lit mad world of Mario Bava where nothing is quite what it appears and baddies win - almost.


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