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Too much of everything

Excellent but underrated film

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I'm not an expert on Dario Argento, having only seen a few of his films, but I do know that his fans generally feel his most recent movies are not up to his older films. From this film (and after earlier seeing his Dracula film), I think I can see why that is the case. As you probably have concluded from the title, this movie is aimed at being a tip of the hat to Alfred Hitchcock, and it does indeed have a number of references to several Hitchcock movies. And the movie does have three scenes (an outdoor scene taking place in the rain at night, a bathtub sequence, and the climatic sequence) that do have a taste of the suspense style Hitchcock was known for. Yet even in those three scenes, the movie doesn't have the impact found in Hitchcock's (as well as Argento's) best films. The movie has three big problems. First, it's really cheaply made. Even though the story didn't require stuff like special effects, the movie has a real tacky look. The second problem is that the movie is really slow for the first two-thirds. Padding abounds. The third problem is that the central protagonist is not very sympathetic. In fact, he's kind of annoying. I could list a number of other problems with the movie, like what the point of that long opening scene was, but that would be redundant. To sum up, this is disappointing stuff for Argento and/or Hitchcock fans. About the kindest thing that can be said about the movie is that it isn't as bad as Argento's "Dracula".

Argento has obviously seen better days, but there are still traces of his genius in this slow-moving TV movie about a kid obsessed with the films of Hitchcock who thinks a neighbor living across from him may have been murdered by someone he knows. The murder itself is about the only gory moment in the movie, which will come as a disappointment to lovers of past Argento splatter classics like CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, TENEBRAE, DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA, THE PHANTOM and OPERA. The film pays homage to STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, PSYCHO, VERTIGO, DIAL M FOR MURDER and REAR WINDOW. Badly acted, and the stilted English spoken by the actors in an Italian setting makes it hard to watch at times. The killer's identity comes as no surprise in the end.

I *loved* the *idea* of the Dario Argento movie "Do You Like Hitchcock?" Being an admirer and fanatic of the Master of Suspense myself, I was all for a movie that was not only inspired by Hitchcock's masterpieces, but made homage to them and incorporated their influence into its characters. The idea of combining elements from films such as "Vertigo", "Psycho", "Strangers on a Train", "Dial M for Murder" and most notably "Rear Window" sounded like a real winner to me. So the concept of this made-for-television film rang like solid gold, however, the final product itself is not. Rather, I'm afraid to report, it's dreck.The whole premise is like a reworking of "Rear Window." A film student obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock gets to looking out his window, especially when he breaks his leg. And he becomes convinced that his neighbor across the street has committed murder. And he's convinced that his neighbor is also a fan of Alfred Hitchcock and may have been inspired by the master's films.Now the homage and the respect to Alfred Hitchcock is admirable, however the film is not. I will admit there was one moment of suspense that I actually found credible, but everything before and after it was so unbelievably dull, so preposterously dumb, so mind-numbingly slow and inferior that the movie resulted in nothing short of being a catastrophe. I had a feeling the movie was going to be a waste of time after its peculiar and unintentionally funny opening scene. I knew that when I saw yet another unnecessary sex scene afterward that the movie was going to throw a lot of idiotic and time-slowing ideas after another.I am not familiar with the director or actors' works, but I'm sure they have done much better than what I saw here. Elio Germano is rather dull as the protagonist modeled after Jimmy Stewart's character in "Rear Window", often rushing through his lines so fast that he's opaque, his girlfriend played by Cristina Brondo hasn't a sliver of the charm of Grace Kelly, and the murderers – the characters in a Hitchcock movie that were always charismatic or interesting – are as dull as they come…and badly acted. There is no menace from them.In addition, the movie also fails because it's trying too much to be like a Hitchcock movie, modeling a lot of scenes, cinematography, sequences, and so forth after scenes from the master's filmography. The movie doesn't seem to have an original thought of its own…and what it does have of its own is rather ridiculous. As hopeful and enthusiastic I was for this film, I'm sorry to report that your time is better spent elsewhere.

Some say that imitation is the best form of flattery. This seems to be the case with Italian director Dario Argento. He is a man that loves to shock with his stories of blood and gore in a genre known as giallo in Italy. Alas, "Ti piace Hitchcock" his 2005 made for television film doesn't quite live up to his previous work, although it is not a horrible movie.Argento sets his film in a Torino neighborhood where Giulio, a young student of cinema, and with a what appears to be an unlimited amount of time in his hands, loves to spy his neighbors from his window. He discovers Sasha, a young woman who is always fighting with her mother about money.Giulio, who loves to watch old films in DVD format, meets Sasha at the neighborhood store where she is about to rent "Strangers on a Train", one of Hitchcock's best films. Federica, a beautiful blonde, has the same idea in mind as she is about to grab the only copy in the store. Giulio realizes there is more than really meets the eye between what appears to be a casual encounter.There are references of Hitchcock's work throughout the story, like when Giulio is taking the shower, which reminds us of "Psycho", which is also prominently displayed at the video store. When Sasha's mother is victim of foul play, Giulio decides to investigate, putting himself in harm's way. Eventually, he is also a target for knowing too much, or perhaps because he gives that impression. Other references to Hitchcock include a "Rear Window" sequence, as well as another one to "Vertigo".The film is entertaining, although the dubbed version we watched on a cable channel was badly dubbed, which was distracting. One can hope Mr. Argento has more blood in mind on his next venture.