Torino in Italy.Serial killer called Yellow is killing beautiful foreign women because he is ugly as hell.He kidnaps them first in his taxicab and proceeds to drug them.Then he mutilates his victims and photographs his deeds before each gruesome kill.Linda(Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner)teams up with detective Enzo(Adrien Brody)and they both try to stop elusive killer before he kills Linda's captured sister.Being a fan of Dario Argento's gialli I was a bit disappointed with "Giallo".Actually I avoided watching this film for some time.First of all the killer called Yellow looks truly stupid.Still the cinematography of "Giallo" is truly beautiful and the acting is quite good.There are also some unpleasant scenes of gore and carnal mutilations,but the film lacks suspense and truly engaging story.7 slashings out of 10.
... View MoreI couldn't believe the ratings for this movie and after watching it i really think that it deserves a solid 5 or 5.5.Biggest drawback is the yellow bad guy who is presented as a degenerated handicap who just wants to get rid of everything beautiful. The resemblance to Rambo is just obvious and it looks like a comedy from time to time. Minus 4 points for that. Revealing the identity of the bad guy too early just makes the movie take another hit as a viewer might get a little uninterested. "Yeah that's him, and yes they're going to catch him sooner or later. Why keep watching this?" Brody saves the movie from falling too deep and obviously this movie seems very professionally executed with strong visual side. It is just too bad that it falls into below average TV thriller category and there just doesn't seem to be enough plot for a full movie. In the end this movie is more of a horror movie than a giallo thriller.Is it still worthwhile to watch it? Yes if u are not expecting a masterpiece and just some fun. Argento style is still definitely there and it's just hard to find any message that the director wants to say with this.Still i give it a 6 because i was entertained.
... View MoreAcceptable gory killing film in which Dario Argento demonstrates his penchant for original ideas and creative directing . In Torino, Celine ,Italy, a woman named Linda (Emmanuelle Seigner , Roman Polanski's wife) fears her sister , a fashion model girl named Celine (Elsa Pataky, at that time Brody's girlfriend) , may have been abducted . Obstinate Inspector Enzo Avolfi (Adrien Brody, also producer) gets some clues and fears it's worse . When a Japanese young girl is found at nearby a fountain, Enzo and Linda along with Chief Inspector named Mori (Robert Miano) find that the woman is calling the sadistic kidnapper's skin is "Yellow" . Both of whom team up to rescue her from a sadistic murderous known only as Yellow, or Giallo . The Inspector along with Linda start following the tracks that lead a cab man who might have jaundice and they go to a hospital.Classic though average Gialli with imaginatively staged gory killings by the master of horror, the talented writer/director Dario Argento . Italian cult director Dario Argento, master of arty gore, brings this eerie and stylish story plagued with depraved gore murders . Exciting film with stylish , effective aesthetic that packs lots of gore , guts , chilling assassinations and twists plots . This is a trademark terror work for the Horrormeister Argento with high tension quotient and equally elevated suspense by means of an ever-fluid camera that achieves colorful shots well photographed by the cameraman Frederic Fasano. Noteworthy for intelligent edition work that tightens the mystery , glimmer use of color and distinctive utilization of shock images . Sometimes weak screenplay is added to nice but gory special effects . Thrilling musical score by Marco Weba with suspenseful whispers combining to fortissimo soundtrack which help achieve incredible creepy moments . The terror pieces are well staged with eye-opening flair-play and contain obscure tracks to the denouement of the script . This scary motion picture is professionally directed by Dario Argento , though uninspired and with no too much originality. Argento is one of those film-makers (other examples are Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda ) who set off simple for frightening us to death . His period of biggest hits were the 70s when he directed the animals trilogy : ¨Four flies over gray velvet¨, ¨The cat of nine tails¨, ¨Bird with the crystal plumage¨, after he directed some masterpieces as ¨Suspiria¨, ¨Inferno¨ , ¨Tenebre¨ and of course ¨Deep red¨ , one of the best ¨Giallo . In 1995 Argento made a comeback to the horror genre with ¨La Sindrome Di Stendhal (1996)¨ and then by another version of ¨The phantom of the Opera¨ (1998) both of which starred by his daughter Asia Argento . Most recently, Argento directed a number of 'giallo' mystery thrillers which include Insomnio (2001), ¨Il Cartaio (2004)¨, and ¨Ti Piace Hitchcock?¨ (2005), as well as two creepy , supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series "Masters of Horror". Furthermore , to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling , ¨La Terza Madre (2007)¨ has a lot of references to the previous two movies as 'Suspiria and Inferno' which is a must for fans of the trilogy . And finally directed this so-so film called ¨Giallo¨ . This bloody fun plenty of graphic gore and weirdness may not be for all tastes but to be liked for Argento connoisseurs especially .
... View MoreThe Italian Horror deity Dario Argento is probably my choice for THE greatest living Horror director (and one of the greatest of all-time). A master of the Italian Giallo, Argento helped define the genre in its heyday in the early 70s with his animal trilogy (L'UCCELLO DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALLO, IL GATO A NOVE CODE, 4 MOSCHE DI VELUTO GRIGIO) and perfected it with the 1975 masterpiece PROFONDO ROSSO (1975), the most famous Giallo which is widely regarded to be the highlight of the genre, and kept the Genre alive after its heyday with brilliant and bloody films such as TENEBRE (1982) or OPERA (1987). Even when doing supernatural Horror films, Argento always gave them a touch of the Giallo, be it supernatural Horror films with Giallo-elements like SUSPIRIA (1977) and INFERNO (1980), or a Giallo with supernatural elements, such as PHENOMENA (1985). Argento's unique talent to build up blood-curling Horror and suspense through atmosphere, and to combine gruesome and gory acts of violence with elegance and beauty make Argento's films so essential.His 2009 film GIALLO was generally negatively perceived by my fellow fans of the man, which is the reason why I delayed the viewing for quite a long while. The first observation to be made when watching GIALLO is the fact that this is technically not really a Giallo. A typical Giallo generally revolves around a murder series (the victims typically being hot young women), in which a protagonist is a possible next victim, the murders often being spectacular and gory, and the killer's identity remaining hidden until the end. Actually, the phantom identity of the killer (and guessing who it could be) was one of the main points of the Giallo (with some exceptions such as the great Mario Bava's IL ROSSO SEGNO DELLA FOLLIA, Luigi Cozzi's L'ASSASSINO È COSTRETTO AD UCCIDERE ANCORA or Rentao Polselli's DELIRIO CALDO).GIALLO is also about a murder series, the victims of which are young women. However, guessing the killer's identity is no central point of the movie, it actually gets revealed half the way into the film. There is no guessing who the killer could be, none of the other characters is suspicious. We know who the killer is when we first see his face. Also, the murders are not in a typical gory but elegant Giallo-fashion. The killer poses as a taxi driver and kidnaps his victims in a cab, then tortures them to death, making GIALLO closer to 2000s 'torture-porn' of the HOSTEL-type than a typical Giallo.In Turin, Linda (Emanuelle Seigner) reports her model sister Celine (Elsa Pataky) missing. Half New Yorker Homicide detective Enzo Avolfi (Adrien Brody) soon realizes that the disappearance of the beautiful young woman must be the work of a pattern killer whose objective is to destroy beauty...Generally speaking GIALLO has its highs and lows. Many fellow Argento-fans seem to despise this film. I can understand the disappointment; however, something being disappointing by Argento's high standards does not necessarily make it bad, and GIALLO is definitely an above-par present day Horror film. There are two childhood-flashbacks in the movie, one of which i found to be good, the other bad. Way before the movie ends, the killer's motivations are explained by childhood trauma; this is something I generally hate because it lessens the creepiness of the murderer. Argento's fame obviously allowed a high budget and the hiring of famous international actors Adrien Brody and Emanuelle Seigner. Both are good actors, and both are good in their roles, even though the characters are very stereotypical. Brody's chain-smoking Inspector with a super-rough voice is the walking stereotype of the disillusioned homicide detective who is eaten up by the horrors he has experienced. The movie was filmed in English, which shows. Even though the entire film is set in Turin, there is barely a word of Italian spoken. The score by Mario Werba is OK, but it doesn't even nearly play in the same league as the brilliant scores by Goblin/Clauio Simonetti, that were part of what made Argento's masterpieces so great. The gore is brutal but not as elegant as in Argento's old films. As any Argento movie, this was elegantly shot, but, again, there is no comparison to his 70s and 80s films; and while the film is suspenseful and gloomy enough is is nowhere near as scary as Argento's many masterpieces.I was not really disappointed with GIALLO, because other Argento fans had previously (and exaggeratedly) complained about it. GIALLO is a solid and suspenseful Horror thriller, it is just not good by Argento standards. Argento made a great Giallo as recent as 2001 with NON HO SONNO. GIALLO just isn't one. But while this is a below-par Argento movie, it is still a more than decent thriller. I'm now curious about how Argento's Dracula 3D project (which is due in 2012) will turn out.
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