In the comic flavor of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Maria and Gino’s Italian world is shattered when their son decides to get a place of his own. They are relieved when Angelo’s childhood buddy Nino decides to move in with their son. However, their relief is short-lived when they find out that Nino and Angelo are more than just roommates—they’re lovers! And then the fun really begins! Stars Paul Sorvino (Bulworth), Luke Kirby (Halloween: The Resurrection).Set in the Little Italy neighborhood of Montreal, Mambo Italiano is a fresh and enjoyable take on gay relationships. After reconnecting with an estranged childhood friend, Angelo (Luke Kirby) discovers that he and Nino (Peter Miller) have more in common than just their Italian heritage and suffocating families. After they move in together, Angelo finds that he can’t stand being in the closet any longer–but Nino, who’s a cop and much more attached to passing as straight, resists. After Angelo tells his parents (Ginette Reno and Paul Sorvino), their lives explode and Angelo discovers that coming out may cost him everything he held dear. The emphasis on ethnic humor threatens to turn Mambo Italiano into My Big Gay Italian Wedding, but the clever writing, sprightly performances, and inventive direction keep the movie consistently unpredictable and funny. Also featuring Claudia Ferri as Angelo’s neurotic sister. –Bret Fetzer
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March 5, 2010
#1
This is the most vulgar and cheap movie I have ever seen. And I thought “Lost in Translation” was bad… well, I have seen the worst and the title is “Mambo Italiano”. A trash movie from A to Z to say the very least, and watching it was painful and boring to the core. No scenario whatsoever, just vulgar language from beginning to end. I tried to find some dignity and humanity somewhere in this movie but I haven’t found any whatsoever. Pitiful is the only word I can find to describe that garbage.
March 5, 2010
#2
I saw this movie in the theater and was amazed at how quiet it was in there! Since I was bored, I found myself looking at other people there to see if I could get a read on what they were thinking, and after it was over I asked my friend what he thought. He said, “Oh, it was okay” but didn’t elaborate. So let me: it was painfully unfunny, with jokes or punchlines that fell flat, horrible acting, totally predictable, and very forgetable. This is a movie you might want to rent ONLY if you’re really bored and nearly every other movie is out. And even then, you’d be better off to go home empty handed. There’s not even much eye candy to recommend, which is a nice fallback if there’s nothing else going for it. How people could give this movie anything more than 1 star is puzzling. Just because you like a movie shouldn’t mean you give it 5 stars, especially when it’s as bad as this one. I mean, I liked Freddy VS Jason, but there’s no way I’d give that movie 4 or 5 stars. This is bottom of the barrel.
March 5, 2010
#3
Sad. MAMBO ITALIANO had all the pre-release press and convinced some reviewers in the media that this little film was due to deliver all the grace and charm of the surprise Indie successes along the lines of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING and REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES. This was to the breakthrough movie that would make the ‘surprise-the-public du jour topic’ of gay life (so prevalent in the current televsion sitcoms and reality shows) become a family film of vast appeal. Despite some very good actors (Luke Kirby and Peter Miller as the Italian lovers overcoming the Italian family mores as portrayed by Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno etc), this vision of American-Italian dysfunctional faimly life pulls all focus away from what could have been an insightful film about ethnic/familial constraints on same sex love. It is so coated with suffocating shlock that any ring of sensitivity is simply drowned in visual, trashy excess. There is merit to the story but it has been told many times before and much better, mainly in Italian or Spanish art films, that this little attempt falls very flat. Another example of what ‘Hollywood mentality’ can do to potentially touching tales.
March 5, 2010
#4
Mambo is a cute movie. It’s not great, somewhat uninteresting, and the worst part is it isnt really funny. The subject matter is the best part of the movie.
March 5, 2010
#5
“Mambo Italiano” has some cogent things to say about Gay relationships, and closeted Gay men and their families but it is difficult to ferret them out what with all the gobble d gook, whatsa mattah widchu and mamma mia dialogue and action on the screen.
As an obvious play for the same audience that went to see “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Mambo Italiano” fails in comparison because it lacks the sparkle, the pacing and the resolve of its own convictions. “MBFGW” is not the finest movie ever made but it is well made, well scripted and for the most part, well acted. Unfortunately, “Mambo Italiano” is none of these things.
But there are two scenes in which all the wedding cake frosting and Italian Neighborhood Restaurant decor is cut away and Angelo (Luke Kirby), gay and out, cries out in pain and anguish over a life spent hiding who he is. “Before my parents die, I wanted them to know who I really am,’ he says. Gay or not, how many kids need to have this conversation with their parents right now?