They Call Me Jeeg
| They Call Me Jeeg | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Gabriele Mainetti |
| Produced by | Gabriele Mainetti |
| Written by |
Nicola Guaglianone Menotti |
| Starring |
Claudio Santamaria Luca Marinelli Ilenia Pastorelli |
| Music by | Michele Braga Gabriele Mainetti |
| Cinematography | Michele D'Attanasio |
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Production
company |
Goon Films, Rai Cinema
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| Distributed by |
Lucky Red (Italy) Uncork’d Entertainment (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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112 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian / Romanesco dialect |
| Budget | €1.7 million |
| Box office | €5.713.331 |
They Call Me Jeeg (Italian: Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot) is a 2015 Italian superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria in the lead role. The plot concerns a lonely misanthropic crook named Ezio, that uses his superpowers gained after being affected by radioactive waste in the Tiber waters, to chase down a crazy gangster called "The Gipsy".
The film is a tribute to the anime and manga series Steel Jeeg (Jeeg Robot in Italy, where it is widely popular) by Gō Nagai, from which takes up some thematics; the title is an in-joke based on the Alessia character who believe that the hero of the anime, Hiroshi Shiba, exists in the real world, and she mistakes Ezio for him.
The film was nominated for several film industry awards, including seventeen David di Donatello, winning seven. It was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.
After a succesfull run in Italian theaters in 2016, the movie is getting a limited release in the US starting March 17th, 2017.
Enzo Ceccotti is a thief who lives in Rome's slum Tor Bella Monaca. One day he jumps into the Tiber in order to escape from the police and falls into a barrel of radioactive waste, which infects him giving him superpowers, like exceptional strength and healing abilities.
He gradually loses his disinterest towards people thanks to Alessia, a mentally handicapped girl who has mistaken him for the Japanese manga hero Hiroshi Shiba, and gradually shifts from supercriminal to superhero in order to save her from a psycho gangster known as "The Gipsy".
They Call Me Jeeg received positive reviews from critics, who praised the Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances, the screenplay, and the "township" setting.MoviePlayer gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a triumph of pure cinema, writing, acting, ability to stage and productive obstinacy". Film critic Massimo Bertarelli () called it "a masterpiece, to watch at all costs [...] full of fun", praising Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances.Variety praised the film, calling it "gritty and thoroughly enjoyable". After its US release, the film received mixed reviews by some American critics, receiving a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on seven reviews (4 "Fresh" and 3 "Rotten"), with an average rating of 6/10.
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