Rating: 
Summary: Phenomenal story of hope and courage!
Review: Wonderful movie! I was so relieved to watch a movie that portrayed reality. I am tired of going to movies full of sex and violence. This movie left me with a sense of peace and hope. I only wish Hollywood could catch the drift...We're tired of dirty movies...This is the human spirit. This is a REAL story. Wonderful! I highly recommend it to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely magnificent!
Review: Everyone else has already said what I feel about this wonderful, moving film. My only advice is to watch the subtitled version rather than the dubbed one. The Italian is beautiful and you get used to reading the subtitles very fast.
Rating:
Summary: The life is beautiful: a cinematographical masterpiece!
Review: "The life is beautiful" is the most tender, funny, ingenious and charming movie of these last years. Roberto Benigni makes us cry and laught at the same time, he manages to touch our hearts with his thin finesse. This movie was followed by many critisims, the jewish community didn't appresciate the movie because of his traslation of the holocaust, but "The life is beautiful" does not want to make fun of this terrible massacre, the movie just wants to mark people by touching their feelings. "The life is beautiful" is simply a cinematographical masterpiece!
Rating: 
Summary: Buy this DVD here--retail price is going to be $40
Review: Comparing "Life is Beautiful" to "Hogan's Heroes", as some have done in these reviews, requires a big stretch of the imagination. Personally, I find these one-star reviews to be indicative of contempt, a desire to NOT like this movie, maybe even before it's watched. Some of the comments in the 5-star reviews also seem a tad over-enthusiastic to me. Obviously, movie hype causes some people to backlash against it even as others embrace it completely.In any case, it is NOT "Hogan's Heroes"; there aren't any snappy sitcom one-liners, the Nazi's aren't played as laughable buffoons, and Holocaust victims aren't portrayed as happy, peppy people who feel just fine in their current situation and surroundings. Certainly, they're not made fun of, and the horrors of the Holocaust always loom under the surface of the story, contrary to other claims that they're downplayed. You don't need gore a la' Private Ryan in order to show that war (and consequences thereof) are hell. What we do have in "Life is Beautiful" (if taken at face value and not overreacted to) is a very unique, funny, and touching film. The humor is solely based on the character of Guido, and on the elaborate lies he cooks up to protect his young son from the truth of their situation. However, there is ALWAYS an underlying sense of fear and risk--Guido isn't at all unconcerned about their true situation. The only criticism I have is that the concentration camp set was too small and unconvincing. It looked more like (and probably was) an abandoned factory complex. I understand that it was all the filmmakers needed to fit the scope of the movie, but still, to me, this was somewhat distracting. I highly recommend this movie--you won't see anything like it come out of Hollywood, at least for a while.
Rating:
Summary: Very Special Movie
Review: I have seen the movie Hero (Dustin Hofman 1994) over 50 times during last four years. I was 100% sure that there was no space to create another movie so heartwarming like that. Life is Beautiful proved me that i was wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: Appallingly overrated
Review: This film should have been titled "My Ego Is Beautiful." The so-called gags are weak and uninspired and, for a film that purports to be about the triumph of the human spirit blah blah blah, Begnini's character displays very little interest in any other people beyond himself. The unrealistic depiction of the concentration/extermination/labor camp actually undercuts the resonance of the "humor" in the second half. Had the filmmakers chosen to depict the dehumanizing horror of a real camp accurately, Begnini's mugging might have had a truly tragicomic effect. But setting the film in a camp in which Jewish children are allowed to live instead of being murdered on arrival and in which a prisoner is allowed to roam about unsupervised merely reduced the contrast between horror and comedy to the level of a Hogan's Heroes rerun. For a good Italian comedy about the Holocaust and WWII, rent Wrtmuller's Seven Beauties instead.
Rating:
Summary: Nazi's are funny
Review: I never thought that a film about the horriable things that went on in germany could rasie a smile but these film did. It made me laugh so much I thought I was going to cry and made me cry so much I thought I was going to laugh. This little french guy is so good, and all the other jews made me feel proud that we won the war for them. 2 thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Grat movie-Fantastic actor
Review: This guy is a Chaplin of our times. The more I see this movie, the more I enjoy it
Rating:
Summary: Words aren't adequate
Review: possibley one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. It is sad to see that there are some people offended by the hope and love in this movie. No one is denying the tragedy and horror of the holocaust. This movie was in no way trying to down play that but rather to explore the possibilities of hope and love and dedication. I can hardly see how that is harmful at all. My hat is off to Roberto, thank you for one of the best I've ever seen
Rating:
Summary: There is such a thing as utter perfection!!!!!!!!
Review: If I never see another film as long as I live, I will be happy knowing that this one was my last one. I don't cry in movies, this and Schindler's List are the only exeptions to that rule. I could hardly believe it when I found that I was crying. This movie is one of those few films that come around once in a generation to make us think of waht the world can be like, with Love, Family and Imagination. I would put this film as one of, if not the best film of all time. Thank You Roberto Benigni for giving us, the true gift of this movie. Thank You.
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