Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco!

I'm not a big fan of the character, but I like the dark and mature universe of the comic. The adaptation seems to me quite faithful to what I have read.

The costumes, the location, the actors, the script, all the ingredients were there to make a descent movie.

The only problem is the lack of talent of the directors (although two). The acting is not very coherent. There are a lot of weird and uninspired shots and the cutting reminds me of Sam Raimi's early work.

It's less mature and violent than the previous one, it has lost some of the toxic mood there was with it's psychopath hero and most murders are off-screen. The actor has been replaced by another with a more pleasant physique, but without the nuances of his predecessor.

Monica Bellucci doesn't bring much to the film, Miriam Leone (the hero's girlfriend) and Valerio Mastandrea (the inspector) do a good job.

What else to say? If the Italian film industry keeps financing their movies with taxpayer's money, I believe they will never be able to be as relevant as they were after post WW2. Every film and television production becomes a money grabbing feast at the expenses of the taxpayers (and the industry itself). Millions of euros gets stolen from the budget for personal gain or to cover for their companies debt. It's mayhem, and it show in this miserable trilogy (and the overall state of Italian cinema).

I sat down to watch the 2022 Italian movie "Diabolik: Ginko All'attacco!" (aka "Diabolik: Ginko Attacks!") shortly after having sat down to watch the 2021 movie "Diabolik", which I rather enjoyed.

However, writers Antonio Manetti, Marco Manetti and Michelangelo La Neve dropped the ball here. This 2022 sequel was nowhere as entertaining or enjoyable as the 2021 movie. And that was rather disappointing, especially since "Diabolik: Ginko All'attacco!" hardly felt like it belonged as a sequel, since the Diabolik character wasn't really given all that much screen time.

Luca Marinelli played Diabolik in the 2021, but he had been replaced by Giacomo Gianniotti, whom had zero charisma and both looked and felt like a fish out of water on the screen. Does see Valerio Mastandrea and Miriam Leone return to reprise the roles of Ispettore Ginko and Eva Kant respectively.

There wasn't much of any burglary, thieving, heists, or much of anything going on in "Diabolik: Ginko All'attacco!", and that made sitting through 116 minutes of this movie from directors Antonio Manetti and Marco Manetti quite a tiresome ordeal. Yet, I managed to endure the movie, thinking that something was bound to liven up the movie as the clock was running out, but nothing happened.

"Diabolik: Ginko All'attacco!" was a slap to the face with a cold dead fish if you enjoyed the 2021 movie.

My rating of "Diabolik: Ginko All'attacco!" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

No pun intended - I assume you have seen at least the first Diabolik movie (the predecessor for this that is and not the Mario Bava movie from the 60s). With that in mind, all major returning characters are being played by the same actors ... except the one that should matter the most: Diabolik ... it is a different actor altogether! For whatever reason (I did not check for the reason to be honest) ... I won't speculate.

What I can say is that this does not fair as good as the first movie. I can only hope that part 3 ramps things up a bit ... maybe with another Diabolik actor? I would not really be surprised. We get some new characters and actors added - mainly Monica Belucci - if you know her, you probably love or loved her at one time. She still has the charisma - but some people who criticize the movie say she is not close to the characters she is supposed to portray ... something I can't confirm or deny, since I have not read any of the comic books (graphic novels) ... not the best throwback ever (go to the original), but not the worst either.

The movie is overall very nice and enjoyable. Nice reconstruction of the Diabolik world. Nice costumes. Nice cartoonish scenography. Good overall acting for such kind of film. Just one big stain on it... and therefore a big question..... why to ruin an overall well made movie with the horrible acting of Monica Bellucci and why choose (or accept) to soft focus (or photoshop) her face (and only her) all around the movie when she appear in the scenes? I know... her presence will probably open additional markets to the movie... but I stil don't understand.... Maybe she paid to be in the film if soft focused?