500! (2001)

500!: Directed by Giovanni Robbiano, Lorenzo Vignolo, Matteo Zingirian. With Andrea Bruschi, Veronica Logan, Massimo Olcese, Manuela Ungaro. While world religious leaders gather for a top secret meeting in La Spezia, the Reverend Jones, a famous television preacher and the creator of ‘Reverend Jones’s Sauce’, is set on replacing them all and imposing his credo on the unsuspecting world. To that end he hires the services of a sophisticated and infallible killer named Omega whose only defect lies in the perfection with which he carries out his mission. His success rate bores him rigid and in order to drum up some well-needed enthusiasm, Omega creates a whole set of difficulties for himself while on the job. Given the unique nature of the task that the Reverend Jones has assigned him, Omega decides to tell someone what he is about to do. But instead of telling someone in authority, Omega chooses a name at random from the phone book: Carlo Maggi, a normal twenty-eight year old about to be married and live a normal, albeit boring life. Carlo tries to warn the police, who ignore him and then he goes to the papers. The only person to believe his tall tale is Anna Letizia Kohler, a young and ambitious journalist. They decide to try and stop Omega and set out together for La Spezia in a Fiat 500 that has seen better days. A journey that would normally take a couple of hours takes them an entire day. Will they be in time?

“Maybe one of the things we ask in a movie is to give us a good time and this movie definitely does it; when you find yourself laughing you donu0026#39;t ask yourself anything about the budget, the financing or the industry rules. This movie is a miracle, shot on a outrageously low budget, has gained an unexpected and unusual national release (in Italy) due to this simple fact: it is funny. The story deals with everyday hero Carlo Maggi, trying to save the lives of the Pope and those of all the major religious world leaders from the threat brought by Omega, the killer who never fails. Story is a guideline for bizarre encounters and accidents that bring to screen a bunch of some of the most promising and talented italian comedians. Style is a combination of genres, all included, fun is guaranteed, film is simple and naive, u0026quot;user-friendlyu0026quot;, but competent, well directed, with good performances, built around a solidly structured script with a ultra fast editing and a fascinating original score (by MAO). This is a movie for those who want to have fun, for those who love movies and moviemaking and above all for all those that have dreamed to make a movie by themselves or still dream about doing it now.”