Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As Good As It Gets

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Being a fan of auteur film maker Mario Bava,I was absolutely thrilled to get the DVD from a very kind fellow IMDber of Mario Bava's adventure in the Comic-Book genre,and decided to save it for a special event. Doing some major film viewings as ICM held a best of 1968 movie poll,it felt like the perfect time to find out how diabolic things could get.The plot:Aware of the government staging a fake transfer of $10 million in order to distract them,master criminal Diabolik and his partner Eva Kant turn the tables on the law,and steal the real money. As the government approve a return of the death penalty to bring crime down,Diabolik makes the government a laughing stock,by setting off laughing gas at the conference. Deciding they want the same thing,the police and the underworld team up,as Diabolik sets off on a diamond robbery filled with danger.View on the film:Setting the film off like a rocket,the score by Ennio Morricone sends the rocket into space with a Surf Punk score that was ten years ahead of its time, with Morricone's rumbling drums and waves of guitar riffs flying along the superhero caper. Expressing in the commentary how proud he still was of the movie, John Phillip Law gives an energetic performance as Diabolik,with Law giving Danger a devil may care attitude,to outwitting the law at every turn.Shimmering when stepping in her first Comic-Book panel, Marisa Mell gives an enchanting performance as Eva Kant,who along with looking gorgeous in disguises,is also given a quick-wit by Mell,making Kant the perfect partner in crime for Diabolik. Putting his own paint brush on the astonishingly beautiful matte painting,co- writer/cinematographer/directing auteur Mario Bava puts his distinctive bright colour designs into vivid Comic-Book pulp Pop- Art, with limited sets being seamlessly blended to lush matte painting covering the pages of Diabolik's adventure in exploding red,greens blues and yellow. Masterfully using the matte paintings to create Comic-Book panel framing, Bava draws an exciting,adventure atmosphere with high- stylised whip-pans and circling camera moves unmasking the danger of Danger Diabolik.

Lavishly produced but extremely low on credibility, this movie featuring a comic-strip super-villain runs for an extraordinary length of time. Its repetitious plot is over-acted by everyone in the cast except John Phillip Law – who plays the frozen-faced, impersonal, uninteresting and uninvolving Diabolik. Marisa Mell makes up for some of Law's deficiencies, but Terry-Thomas grossly over-acts. Fortunately, his role is small. Michel Piccoli is okay as the hero. It's Adolfo Celi who comes out of the movie with flying colors, but unfortunately his role is comparatively brief. Morricone has contributed a disappointing score. As I said right from the start, lots of money was wasted on this one.

Ah, Italian cinema from the late 60's. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Mario Bava brings the world an adaptation of the comic Diabolik. Complete with cheesy set pieces, laughable heists, and over-the-top sexuality, this film may not be quite bad enough to be good, but it isn't enough to be bad either. A lot is fun here and that must count for something. Feel free to check your brain at the door, (or perhaps you shouldn't even wake up that morning with it), because once you start questioning how emeralds can be shot out of a gun without gunpowder, the charm will be missed. There are enough sci-fi aspects to bring it out of the reality we think of, so when craziness occurs, please just go with the flow. It will be a better experience as a result and our villain's, (or is he the hero?), winks at the audience will bring a smile rather than an eye roll as you press the stop button on your remote control.I couldn't help but think about one of my favorite films CQ while watching this. From the camera-work of the car chase scenes, to the conveniently placed circles on the shower doors, to the bed romp with money, Roman Coppola's film borrowed a lot. However, what his film had was a dramatic storyline about the director of the cheesy sci-fi film being created rather than just be about that overblown story itself. Diabolik is its own tale without any meta-narrative aspects, so the fun factor did leave the building after the first couple heists. Once you steal 10 million dollars and then a priceless emerald necklace, does the theft of a gigantic bar of gold really hold any interest? Not really for me because it becomes the same recycled plot line over and over again with incompetent government police on his tail. For a 100-minute film, it did drag a lot for me, more for the repetition than anything else. Everyone is having a grand ol' time so it is definitely fun to enjoy the ride, a little variety would have been nice though.There are moments that did definitely work. Diabolik scaling a tower wall with suction cup gadgets and spying the catapult on top is great fun; his girlfriend Eva's sex appeal getting a truck driver to abandon his car is obvious yet well done; and the new Financial Minister's plea to the public to pay what they believe they owe in taxes is priceless. Without any real plot other than the police trying to catch a master criminal and his girl while they get away with all the goods, it is definitely the parts more than the whole that you should focus on. I wouldn't be surprised if the adaptation is from multiple comics in the series, strung together here as a cohesive whole when they may have been solitary books. The fact that our mob boss Ralph Valmont is dispatched so early on helps me believe this because is surely felt as though that would end the film, but no, it keeps on going to the next great caper.With hammy acting and some down right horrid actors, there is no way a movie like this wouldn't have a cult following, even if not directed by a schlock master like Bava. Marisa Mell is femme fatale to the fullest, never allowed to show she is anything more than an accomplice for the love of her man; Adolfo Celi is campy in all the right ways as Valmont, a brazen crime boss who thinks he's one step ahead but always two steps behind; and Michel Piccoli tries his best to be the straight man amongst the eccentrics as Inspector Ginko, the man who has made it his life work to catch Diabolik. However, the entire film hinges on the great facial expressions and calm coolness of our lead played by John Phillip Law. His stone-faced serious delivery of lines like, "don't worry, I could walk on the sun with this suit," are just plain top-notch. The painted on tight rubber wardrobe allow for his eyes to take center stage as they attempt to frighten us with their diabolic nature and the sly smile of success is great whenever he outsmarts the authorities. Law takes the role so seriously that the absurdity works even more as he thwarts the advances by those looking to capture him. This is Diabolik, the greatest criminal of our time, not even liquid gold can keep him down.

Deliriously psychedelic pop-art crime-spoof mini-masterpiece! Although many people mention the Bond films, Mario Bava borrowed quite a large number of ideas from the brilliant US 'Batman' TV-series of 1964-65, such as Diabolik's underground cave-lair with its secret opening, the use of comic book artwork, and especially the scene at the 'Live on TV Police Press Conference' where the authorities are announcing their new "Anti-Crime" plan designed to catch Diabolik. Diabolik is there, of course, disguised as a news photographer. But his camera actually sprays "Exhilarating Gas", and so to protect himself, Diabolik swallows an "Anti-Exhilarating Gas Pill". Everybody in attendance begins laughing uncontrollably in front of the TV cameras including the Police Commissioner and the Minister of Finance, making total fools of themselves on live TV while Diabolik slips away undetected! This scene is straight out of the Batman TV show, of course.The sets and costumes - like 'Batman' - are wonderfully mind-blowing examples of mid-to-late sixties fashion and pop art; all vibrantly bold colors, weird geometric shapes, huge sunglasses, and transparent plastic furniture. When he started shooting his films in color, Bava always used deep, richly colored lighting with bold, angular shadows. By the early 70's, it seems he (and every area of the arts from fashion to film to music) eschewed this 'plastic' look for a more natural, 'earthy' style. 'Diabolik' (released 1968) is perhaps one of the last of Bava's films to use this Pop Art look. His later films that I have seen are much less colorful.This also may be one of the reasons it did rather poorly at the time; it was more 1965 than 1968, and popular tastes changed very, very quickly in those days. What was cool last week was suddenly considered passe this week, and by 1968 when 'Diabolik' was released, its kitschy style was simply too 'last week'. 1968 saw many films which were "heavy" and addressed social and political issues. 'Diabolik' would've seemed silly and childish in the face of 1968's realities such as MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, and the May '68 revolts in Paris.Time has treated it well, however, and Diabolik is a pure delight. Morricone's score is one of his best - it's tragic the tapes were lost - I could listen to it over and over. Marisa Mell (as Diabolik's girl, Eva) also disappeared, dying early in 1991. She is lusciously foxy in that 60's go-go girl way with the long legs and boots and the various outfits she wears, especially the black one with silver rivets all over it! Diabolik and Eva's underground lair is certainly THE ultimate swingin' pad with a revolving bed, transparent his-n-her shower stalls and about 30 Jags parked around the giant living room.