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Pinocchio (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:0
Rotten:17
Average Rating:2.5/10
Consensus: Roberto Benigni misfires wildly with this adaptation of Pinocchio, and the result is an unfunny, poorly-made, creepy vanity project.
Theatrical Release:Dec 25, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $3,627,416
Synopsis: Roberto Benigni (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) brings Carlo Collodi's classic children's story to life in this big budget live-action adaptation. Gepetto (Carlo Guiffre), a humble toy maker, fashions a... Roberto Benigni (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) brings Carlo Collodi's classic children's story to life in this big budget live-action adaptation. Gepetto (Carlo Guiffre), a humble toy maker, fashions a marionette out of a log that has miraculously appeared on his doorstep. After wishing upon a star that his creation, Pinocchio (Benigni), would come to life, Gepetto's wish is granted by the beautiful Blue Fairy (Nicoletta Braschi). The only condition is that Pinocchio must prove his valor, and be completely honest at all times, in order to become a real boy. Unfortunately, this isn't easy for the enthusiastic puppet, who seems to find trouble everywhere he turns. After a long, tumultuous journey, in which Pinocchio is accosted by two corrupt thieves, turned into a donkey, and swallowed by a shark, Pinocchio is reunited with his father, setting up a final challenge that will prove once and for all if Pinocchio has the heart to become a real boy. Benigni's follow-up to the Oscar-winning LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is a crowd-pleasing fantasy film, featuring beautiful cinematography from Dante Spinotti (HEAT, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL). The American release boasts the voices of actors Breckin Meyer, Glenn Close, and John Cleese. [More]
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Carlo Guiffre, Nicoletta Braschi, Breckin Meyer
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Carlo Guiffre, Nicoletta Braschi, Breckin Meyer, Glenn Close
Director: Roberto Benigni
Director: Roberto Benigni
Screenwriter: Roberto Benigni
Producer: Vincenzo Cerami, Gianluigi Braschi, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Elda Ferri
Composer: Nicola Piovani
Studio: Miramax Films
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Release:
Jul 15, 2003
Reviews for Pinocchio
The recut American version is truly awful, but a good 75 percent of the awfulness is attributable to Miramax, the film's distributor.
What can one say about a balding 50-year-old actor playing an innocent boy carved from a log?
What remains is a variant of the nincompoop Benigni persona, here a more annoying, though less angry version of the irresponsible Sandlerian manchild, undercut by the voice of the star of Road Trip.
I can't say this enough: This movie is about an adult male dressed in pink jammies.
An epic turkey, in a league with this year's Swept Away, that must be seen to be believed.
While Benigni (who stars and co-wrote) seems to be having a wonderful time, he might be alone in that.
Audiences can be expected to suspend their disbelief only so far -- and that does not include the 5 o'clock shadow on the tall wooden kid as he skips off to school.
Would Benigni's Italian Pinocchio have been any easier to sit through than this hastily dubbed disaster?
In the spirit of the season, I assign one bright shining star to Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio -- but I guarantee that no wise men will be following after it.
Benigni's Pinocchio is extremely straight and mind-numbingly stilted, its episodic pacing keeping the film from developing any storytelling flow.
The idea of 49-year-old Roberto Benigni playing the wooden boy Pinocchio is scary enough. The reality of the new live-action Pinocchio he directed, cowrote and starred in borders on the grotesque.
The movie unfolds in a clumsy zone between fantasy and realism, and in the end it's neither here nor there.
As the wooden puppet who yearns to be human, Benigni ... is steadfastly insufferable, from his naughty, naïve stage through a transformation to a state of virtue that is steeped in a self-congratulatory martyrdom and nobility.
A movie so bad that it quickly enters the pantheon of wreckage that includes Battlefield Earth and Showgirls.
Lethal for kids and an unspeakable insult to adults, this unreleasable fiasco is a torture for all.
A film substantially lacking in personality, energy, magic and humor.
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