Smile (2011)

Expected more

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Several students on a school holiday discover a mysterious camera, but after several of them start showing up dead after having their picture taken, they start to realize this camera is much more than they bargained for.As a horror fan and especially a fan of Italian horror, I was hoping there would be something redeeming about this film. But, in short, there just was not much to offer and it seemed more inspired by 1990s American horror than Italian horror of any decade. A pity, really, because we are sadly lacking someone to pick up the reins from Bava, Soavi and Argento.Not to say the film is a complete failure, but there is nothing that jumps out as must-see and it is a shame that such a good-looking film just has no soul.

Have you ever had a dentist drill into the nerve of a tooth when you had no Novocaine ? If so, then you've come close to how painful it is to sit through this appalling excuse for a movie...or at least for the first half (or so) of it ( that's all I could stand...and THAT wasn't easy !)The plot,(young Americans on a trip abroad start dying off in increasingly revolting ways) has only been done about a thousand times, and in 99 of every hundred of those thousand times it was done better.The "acting" is not just an embarrassment to the acting profession, to to the entire movie industry...no... to the entire ENTERTAINMENT industry...no...to ALL OF HUMANITY !!!The dialog was well beyond ludicrous, and the direction seemed to be non-existent.If you've ever seen a movie for free that was so bad you wished you had paid to see it JUST so you could demand your money back...I'm going to guess that it was THIS movie.To sum it all up...at one point one of the characters says "This is the worst vacation I've ever been on.", and I swear that the first thing that came into my mind was "Yeah ? Well cheer up pal...you COULD be watching THIS piece of crap !!!"

"Take lots of pictures of your friends, what is a great moment if you can't prove that you had it?" A group of friends on vacation lose their camera. They meet a nice dealer (Assante) who give them a great deal on an old Polaroid camera. After the friends begin to wind up dead they wonder if the camera is the cause. I will start by saying that this was better then I expected. That said this is also nothing that hasn't been done before. Group of kids...evil guy...group gets killed off...yada yada yada. Much like a "Final Destination" type movie where you know who will die next and you just wait for it to happen. The best part of the movie hands down is the last 2 minutes, an average movie with a sweet ending. Overall, this plot has been done 1,000 times, but this time a camera is involved. This version is not that bad though. I give it a B-.Would I watch again? - Not this one, but next month I'm sure another version will some out.

Recently I have been back to my hometown in Italy for a short vacation and just yesterday I decided to hit the cinema to watch this Italian production called "Smile", looking forward for some healthy summer thrills over my back (moreover yesterday I was the only spectator in the dark room to watch it so it could be really creepy!)As an hardcore horror fan, I'm always hopeful to see the "reborn" of Italian horror considering that in the past several of our directors delivered to the world nice pieces of horror and, though I was not particularly amazed by Smile trailer, I decided to give it a chance.The chance started to break down after the first 10-15 minutes and the situation worsened until the end of the movie. How to describe "Smile"? I would say it's a mixture of poor ideas (most of them already seen in other movies with a much better production), stupid dialogs and situations, even poorer "special effects" (if there are any...) and silly acting (sometimes I have the feeling the actors don't believe that much in what they are doing).Anything to save? A few. The location, shot in Morocco, was potentially good and attractive, plus the actor Armand Assante was the only one who, with his few seconds presence, gave to this movie a bit of "horror feeling".I give to this movie 2 instead of 1 because I appreciate the effort that, anyway, has been done to create a horror genre made in Italy but unfortunately there is still a lot of hard work to do to guarantee the audience with a more satisfying vision.