Pinocchio

Benigni's faithful version of Carlo Collodi's Italian fairy tale suffers from a disastrous decision to dub the dialogue for an American audience and Benigni's self-consciously manic and forced portrayal of the little wooden boy. Set against this wall-to-wall performance, the rest of the proceedings seem lifeless and dull, with the exception of the opening sequence (before Benigni shows up). By the time you read this, a subtitled version could be around, which may help with the humor, but will still leave the other problems. One thing that is not a problem is Spinotti's wonderful cinematography. Production is the most expensive in Italian history, at $45 million.