Starts off like a dud, gets progressively better.

This early Fellini is probably his funniest and most optimistic. It concerns the de-idealization of a pair of newlyweds, honeymooning in Rome. The introduction of the titular Sheik is a shot worth canonizing, and Alberto Sordi invests him enough pathos to keep him from being plain icky.

A very entertaining and charming comedy. There's not much to say about it but the acting is really good and it's all pretty funny, plus the ending (that subtly compares the church to cheap melodrama, in the first of Fellini's many ballsy acts of awesome) is subtle but incredibly cool. The scene in the fountain with the fire breather and Massina as Cabiria was particulary memorable.

My favorite Fellini. Charm and magic.

I could see the humor in it, but it all felt like a slightly above average "I Love Lucy" episode. Most of it was very predictable. Also, it's saddled with the things that bug me about Italian movies in general, and Fellini in particular: the horrible dubbing, the rampant Catholicism, the carnival music. And I just don't find Italian culture that interesting. It's not a bad movie at all, just a "who cares?" movie. There were a few splendid moments, though, like the fire breather.

Merely okay. It's funny enough, but hard to get into the main characters.

Wonderful comedy from Fellini. A little slapstick, a little pathos, and a lot of what will become his famed carnival atmosphere in later films. He's just so good at portraying all the ambiguity that exists within performers--excitement that surrounds them, the pursuit of lusty pleasures, and the boredom or even emptiness they struggle to fill. And as always, Giulietta Masina is fantastic, playing her famous Cabiria character from a later film.