Rating: 
Summary: Great Italian Import
Review: "Life Is Beautiful" is one of the best movies released in 1998. It received seven Oscar nominations and three rightful wins: Best Foreign Film, Best Original Score, and Best Actor(Roberto Benigni). Its plot is brilliant. Such chain of events rarely fit as one credible movie. Benigni's writing brilliance makes everything fit. Amazingly, the plot takes a severe historic tragedy and offers more hope of survival, namely Guido telling his son that this is a game of trying to win the tank. Though nothing about The Holocaust was good, this accurately desplicts the trials of its victims. The movie combines tragedy, magic, and love. The acting is wonderful. Everyone pours their heart and soul through their characters. Their previous research about the real-life victims shines through every scene. Such rough emotions are never held back for a second. The set and the costume designs were manufactured wonderfully. They accurately desplict the styles of 1939-1945. The elaborate settings give the added magical or tragic vibe, depending on the individual scene. "Life Is Beautiful" is a great movie for those looking for a unique, powerful drama. The italian version is much better than the english version. The english version takes away much of the intended emotion. This movie will rightfully become a classic in the near following years.
Rating: 
Summary: Life is Beautiful, Movies can be Weird
Review: After skimming the reviews here, Roberto Benigni has obviously struck a chord with a lot of people.
I would not argue with them but I found myself with the reviewer who called this film MR. BEAN GOES TO AUSCHWITZ. Actual history proved just too distracting for me to get caught up in this "fable." Actually, the film I kept thinking of has never been seen: Jerry Lewis' THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED. I've read the script and I can only imagine the reviews of that film if it was ever released! (Now there's a film in itself: a daffy but deranged filmmaker, popping pills and performing pratfalls, producing his movie about a German clown entertaining Jewish kids on their way to the ovens. Yikes.) LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL doesn't go that far, but I found myself constantly distracted by Benigni's rubbery slapstick taking place in a concentration camp. Yeah, it's sweet that he wants to spare his son the horrors of the camp...but they're in a camp, a concentration camp.
The first half of the film actually plays like a whimsical, slightly-more-witty Jerry Lewis movie. Then the Nazis arrive. Individual scenes manage to touch and charm, but overall it just feels very odd. Jerry Lewis must have gone nuts when Benigni won the Best Actor Academy Award (William Goldman, the sage of screenwriters, certainly did in print by saying this was the greatest Oscar abomination since THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH won Best Picture in the 1950s). I admit I was put off at Benigni's antics at the Oscars--"I LUFF YOU, I LUFF YOU ALL, I MAKE LUFF TO YOU ALL!" I can't even picture Jerry Lewis carrying on that much if he'd won Best Actor for THE BELLBOY. Now that I think about it, maybe he would.... Yes, movies are a great escape from reality--but there are some realities that shouldn't be part of that escape.
We have new generations of kids coming up who are quite removed from the terrifying reality of the Holocaust and the near-slapstick version of it portrayed in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL could diminish the true horror of it.
That heaviness, that memory, made buying into the humor nearly impossible.
Rating:
Summary: Will leave you BREATHLESS; will make you CRY
Review: I still get goosbumps thinking about this movie. I saw it over 3 years ago and every time I see it or hear or read about it, I still get that Oh-what-a-great-movie-that-was feeling....and goosebumps. This is a must see, trust me. Watch it then judge it yourself. Oh and watch it in Italian...it's a LITTLE better. Before you know it, you will be writing your own review and recommending it. DEFENITLY a 5 star movie. PEACE
Rating:
Summary: Life is beautiful?!?..yeah right (if only people were humans
Review: I picked up this movie from the comedy section. I had absolutely no idea that it'll leave me sobbing after all the laughters I've had by watching it.
Guido, lives in Italy and he's a remarkable man with great sense of humour. He meets his principesa by accident and soon she becomes his wife and gives birth to a very bright boy. Then the bloody Nazis show up - Guido and his son are taken away in the camps and then Guido's wife joins their fate too but she's kept seperate from them.
Guido is a very caring father to his son and from the very beginning he keeps telling him that this is only a game so he wouldn't get scared from this absurd but most of all so his son couldn't get killed by damned Nazis. I've probably seen hundreds of movies on Jews sufferings. I must have read hundreds of books too - sad ones that would break my heart into zillion pieces but only after I've watched this movie I realised that I lacked the 100% sympathy to Jews for what they've gone through from sadistic Nazis. God damn them. I know from my own experience that wars and racial hatred are totally wrong but it was only this movie that really taught how bad wars can really be. Just how many nice,remarkable,full of life people like Guido were killed in wars until now?!?
I wonder will they ever stop...and in case they don't I truly hope there'll be wars in which Greed,Hate,Jealousy and Fear would get massacred - not people. Only then Life would have been beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: The film of one thousand and one equlibria...
Review: The unique nature of Holocaust has left our world out of balance! Thus, a film that attempts to bring it back may seem overly ambitious. "Life Is Beautiful" manages to maintain a balance throughout its duration--a balance between grief and joy, between the seriousness of pervasive death and the jocular island of innocence (where Guido's son lives), between desolation and hope... between so many other similarly contradictory juxtapositions. As for the balance this film brings in (your) life you be the judge! Roberto Benigni, as Guido, is at the top of his form and, at times, one has the feeling that he becomes the movie itself. The supporting roles (Nicoletta Braschi and Giorgio Cantarini) are nothing less than great. A FIRST, and hopefully not singular, in what may well be a new genre.
Rating:
Summary: How could this film earn anything less than 5 stars?
Review: To me, this film is perfect. It has everything--adventure, suspense, romance, comedy, tragedy--all extremely well done by a man whose tender spirit shines through every moment.
The best scene in the film for me is when Guido's love interest (who becomes his wife in the film and really IS his wife off camera), ducks under her table to see Guido, the waiter. When she asks him to "take me away," oh my Lord, nothing in the history of film gets any better than that sweet moment.
"Life is Beautiful" is aptly titled. It is a testament to the beauty of the human spirit. It shows the hatred and horror the human species is capable of, BUT in stark contrast, it focuses on love--the love of a man for his wife, the love of a mother and father for their son, the purest love of which humanity is capable; hence, the triumph.
Rating:
Summary: What it means to be a Father
Review: I can't understand the poor reviews of this movie. It is not a documentary of the Holocaust. It is an extraordinary story of what it means to be a father. I know it made me want to be a better one.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Achievement
Review: This is truly one of the greatest movies of all time - and one of the few worth owning for repeated viewing. It manages to combine comedy and tragedy with more subtlety and success than any other. Benigni was born to make/direct/star in this movie. I hope, but doubt, he'll ever be able to top it. One suggestion, watch the movie in Italian with English subtitles - slightly better that way.
Rating: 
Summary: LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL...BUT THIS MOVIE
Review: Let's cut right to the chase: we can all agree that there are certain things that can be appropriately parodied: Presidents of the United States (when they are not addressing things like 9-11 and Pearl Harbor), religious subjects within reason (enter Foul Play), Star Wars movies (enter Spaceballs), Westerns (enter Blazing Saddles), and The Legends of King Arthur (enter Monty Python and the Holy Grail). But there most certainly are other things that are so serious in nature that to make comic movies of them descends to the abysmal depths of bad taste. I am sorry but I can find absolutely nothing funny about life in World War II concentration camps or the Holocaust. Nothing! To attempt to make light of such subjects tarnishes the memory of those who suffered so greatly. Accordingly, Life is Beautiful should be renamed Life is Pathetic or, perhaps, a better title would be "Life is Beautiful, but this movie is STUPID, INANE, IRREVERANT and DISRESPECTFUL!" Douglas McAllister
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Movie
Review: When I rented it (because it was an Academy Award winning movie), I was not aware it was subtitled. Before the first 15 minutes was over, I was so totally engrossed in this movie I did not realize I was reading the dialogue.
A suggestion would be to watch this movie when you are free from distractions as it is important to the story to catch everything.
You fall in love with Roberto Benigni, laugh at his antics and admire him for his selflessness.
Absolutely one of the best movies I have ever seen.
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