Oh God,I am so lucky.I live in a small town in Greece and I have never heard of this film before.And it must be almost impossible to find it in DVD.I accidentally read about this film on the TV program.It was the movie of the day and it is rated with the highest grade.So,I decided to stay awake(because the film started around midnight-like many other great films in Greek TV!)and watch that really great film.It was one of the best decisions I have made recently.The film is about a company of middle-aged men.But they aren't typical 50-year-old men.These men don't care about right behavior,about what others say,about what the rules of society say.They decide to enjoy their lives,so they start making jokes to people and have real fun.They are like children that don't want to get older.First of all,it's one of the best comedies I have ever seen.The scene with Toniatsi and the others slapping the passengers of the train,who have their heads out of the window is one of the funniest scenes ever made.But the greatest part of the movie is,in my opinion,when they pretend the gangsters to make fun of an old man.But,apart from the funny scenes,this films has some things to teach us.It shows,first of all,what real friendship is.Secondly,it teaches us to enjoy our lives.These men have also problems in their lives,like other people.But they decided not to worry so much about them,and as result,they really LIVE THEIR LIVES.And I was really jealous of them,because that's the most important thing,but we often forget that.To sum up,this film is hilarious,moving,sentimental,with really lovable characters and it has some important things to teach.What else do you want from a film?

"Amici miei" should be the final movie of Pietro Germi, one of the masters of the Italian comedy. He wrote the script but was unable to direct it because of his illness (he died in 1974, one year before the release of the picture). So the film went to director Mario Monicelli -another excellent "father" of the Italian comedy-, who did a very good job.A group of 45-50 years old Tuscan men escape the fear of death and the fear of the old age in doing jokes and living as if they were kids. The story is very simple and the film is a chain of several gags -but this is a bittersweet comedy, there are also dramatical moments. The film is very politically incorrect but funny and intelligent.The group of actors is harmonious (Noiret, Tognazzi, Celi, Del Prete, Moschin) and Mario Monicelli is at ease with this story.Nevertheless I think "Amici miei" is a little overrated. Even if it is intended so in the script, the characters aren't nice people at all -their jokes sometimes are so heavy and so ferocious that they result hardly funny... These people are very cynical and egoist. I know this film didn't want to be moving in showing middle-age crisis, but I think characters could have been a little bit softer.Apart from that, this is one of the last great comedies of the Italian cinema and is always worth watching it.

OK, again another Monicelli's masterpiece (based on an idea of the genius Pietro Germi). This movie talks about: friendship, comrade's, love, sex, loneliness, betrayal, fun, sadness, death, sons. In one sentence: it talks about life.There is a lot of FUN in this movie, as the main characters seem to never grow up, they just want to joke about everything, NOTHING is really THAT important or serious to be spared by jokes. The son of the journalist is more mature and serious than his father... remember that we are in 1975 and this is absolutely counter-intuitive!! in that period young people were fighting on the streets for freedom of thoughts, of sex, and for political reasons!! Well, in some ways young people during that period were more socially "committed" than their fathers who wanted to preserve the status quo. In this movie however the middle-aged characters make fun of the status quo: the broken noble betrays his wife for a teen-ager, the surgeon does not care to leave the hospital in troubles for joining his friends, the journalist does not understand his son and never tries to, the architect wants to conquer the heart of a married woman, etc... it's like: "OK, you youngsters do not care about the old moral rules? we, your fathers, too, even more than you..." It's also a sad movie, as this search for continuous fun is a sign that something is wrong in their lives. The architect leaves his new family to join the company for the joke at the train station, as he is fed up with all the problems a real and traditional family provide. Normality is boring and annoying. Fun comes from friends and from breaking the moral or society rules. It's better a good joke (even a cruel one) and have fun than keep a normal life-style and be bored (this is a philosophy that some Italians really have).There is plenty of UNpolitically correct situations... feminist people can be very nervous seeing this movie... remember that it's a movie that reflects a particular culture, the Tuscany of almost forty years ago (the movie is set in the 60's). But real love is not banned in this movie... it's just a cynic point of view (real love ends up eventually, when it becomes normal life). I have seen several times this movie and every time I enjoy it. Also the sequel is good, but the first is just incredible. Do not miss this movie. You'll have lots of laughs and an essay about certain Italian culture.

Perhaps if Pietro Germi had had the opportunity to direct his own script, this one might have turned out differently. Unfortunately, he died before that could happen, after quite a distinguished, if generally unheralded, career.Without him at the helm, we are left with something that is just plain offensive. From the get-go.There are a tiny handful of films I've ever walked out of. "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" comes to mind. I'd had one gratuitous torture scene too many in that instance.I walked out of this ostensible comedy after 80 minutes, during the "fun-filled" suicide scene. I remember that there was a laugh during the film's first half hour although it seems hard to believe that there were any at all in retrospect.Philippe Noiret is in the cast. He's a personal favourite and usually a reliable judge of material. His faith in this script was misplaced.Noiret is involved in what should have been one of the film's "subtle" moments. The four old buddies, the central characters, sing the quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto. (The song is not identified as such. It's an Italian movie so there's no need to.) Then later Noiret sports a fake hump on his back just like the tragic court jester. Obviously someone (Germi?) had a gag in mind at this point, but no connection is made between the two incidents. It's just dead, like the rest of the film.The four buddies are the central characters and the central problem. As we get to know them, they turn out to be malicious jerks -- sort of the middle-aged Jerky Boys of Italy -- and they are soon enough joined by a fifth halfwit.I regret to say that these loutish characters like some of the same things I do, like Cynar and finocchio. That's about the only thing they have to their credit.Director Mario Monicelli recycles one of Germi's old sight gags. During a caper, one of the four, the crudest of the "funnymen", Ugo Tognazzi, is seen reading a copy of "Famiglia Cristiana" magazine. Ha, ha. That particular incongruity was tastefully funny back when Germi was directing, in "Seduced and Abandoned" (1964), I think it was. Not here.The screening did receive steady laughs throughout, most noticeably from the two fellows of questionable taste behind me. But I noticed the room had a lot of other laugh-free zones, not just mine.This one is sour, and negative, and extremely misogynistic. You really have to have a grudge against the fair sex to derive any pleasure from this film.