Danger: Diabolik

A couple of sociopaths rob and kill a bunch of innocent people. Fun?

God, this movie makes me insanely happy, its like one big hit of "exhilaration gas"! Diabolik and Eva are my fucking heroes. Bava captures the joyous, dizzying ridiculousness of comic books and pulp novels better than any bloated Hollywood blockbuster - his best by far. Ennio Morricone's score is, as usual, glorious 60s kitsch genius that I can't stop listening to.

Pure madness and nonsense. Its like live action animation with how ridiculous it is. You can absolutely tell the decade it was made in. Sex on a giant rotating bed while buried under cash -- Diabolik knows how to live it up

I honestly don't get what all the fuzz is about...

An Italian, camp sister movie to the Batman tv series of the same era. Boiled down, Diabolik is the tale of a breezy Italian model turned super criminal, breaking his hedonistic lifestyle to periodically commit grand larceny. His crimes sustain his exotic sub-sea level fuck-cave and help adorn his blonde lover with the worlds rarest trinkets. In doing so he systematically bankrupts the nation of Italy, preceding Fight Club's finale by some years (in an ironic, gloriously cheap fashion)

What it lacks in characterization it makes up for with style. The plot is wonderfully over-the-top, but the pacing lags. I like it in the way that I liked the ghost episode of Mission Impossible, or the vampire episode of Starsky & Hutch, which is to say that I'm well aware it isn't actually very good, it just has some charming qualities that disappeared from film decades ago.

Hilariously ridiculous.

Poorly dubbed movie about a dashing thief.

Deliciously cheesy, and even stylish at times. Diabolik is a total badass; a cross between Batman, a young Hugh Hefner and a Bond villain, who blows up federal buildings without breaking a sweat and risks his life just to get his hot girlfriend some jewelery. Don't expect anything high-brow and you'll probably have a good time, despite the wildly uneven pacing and cheap effects.

Reverse raccoon man! Strangely entertaining, but ultimately awful.

Great MST3K.

Ah, delicious garbage!

F*ck James Bond. Long live Diabolik!

1st, Mell is 1 of the most stunning women I've ever seen. 2nd, the first heist does not impress although this may be b/c the switch-cars-in-tunnel idea is old now. 3rd, Bava takes 7 whole minutes to show us D & his girl go back home & it promises to be excruciating, but luckily things pick up, the heists have some fun twists (although emeralds can't be bullets & that gold wasn't budging) & the ending's a hoot. It's Batman '66 for hipster types who think the Feds are, like, so uncool, ya know?

Early comic book film has style to spare, although its deliberate two dimensional artificiality lacks the obvious artistry of Dick Tracy and later comic books that had larger budgets and access to superior technology. As usual, Bava makes the most of limited means, and it's really a time capsule experience that is refreshingly lightweight and colorful compared to today's equivalents that are often drab and self serious. Morricone's score is a kitschy delight that energises this oddly paced romp.

Well, it's masturbatory and mean-spirited, but it's still fun to watch thanks to a myriad of stylistic touches and a swanky as all hell score. The MST3K episode mocking it is also good.

Completely cartoonish gentleman thief mystery that feels a lot like the goofier James Bond movies or maybe like the Adam West Batman series. Basically Austin Powers if it was actually made in the 60s.

Even Enio's music is bad....

Hilariously ridiculous pretty much sums it up.

Very entertaining supervillain shlock classic. Drags in spots but overall it fits neatly in the so-bad-its-good category.

Great art direction, fun action sequences, funny jabs at government types, a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and Ennio Morricone. What more do you need?

This could have been something really good in a kind of kitsch, campy way, as it is lovely to look at and very entertaining, but, unfortunately, it loses its way and becomes confused, and it takes you out of the movie a little. It's not completely unforgivable, but it's a shame.

Campy, but it keeps the reins tight enough that it still works as a crime film and provides a decent bit of fun from both directions.

Bava's colorful visual style was always a bit cartoonish, so his distorted, wide lens compositions with ingenious framing devices (rear-view mirrors, women legs etc.) is a great fit for this comic book adaptation. But Bava's normally keen sense of atmosphere and intensity is completely lost in an unbearably sleazy camp fest of nonsense.

Kind of awesome

brilliant

Crime fantasy. Visually stimulating, great music and a lot of fun.

Das geschieht, wenn James Bond sich einmal wirklich auf ein Bondgirl einlässt. Er lebt in einer unterirdischen Luxusvilla und wird zum Meisterdieb, um ihre anspruchsvollen Wünsche zu erfüllen. Dabei macht er auch vor Ihrer Majestät Smaragdkette nicht halt.

Ennio's whack score has etched in my mind the female vox: "deep, deep down.......deeeeeep down....deep deep down..." and the Tommy Tedesco-like surf guitar noodings propel this confection along, and a fun ride it was. JPL's recurring laugh, though, coulda used some Drano.

Dino De Laurentiis produced this movie based on a popular Euro-comic strip. There are lots of imaginative sets and colorful lighting, and a great score by Ennio Morricone. Not a box office hit, this should have given Bava's career the shot in the arm it always deserved and is certainly one of the all-time great pop-culture time capsules of the 1960s, with gimmicks and gadgets galore.

Kinda fun & unusual.

66.375

Great fun, lot of cheesy action, sexy babes and awesome soundtrack from Ennio Morricone. If you like video for Body Movin' from Beastie Boys, it's movie for you!

The mix of Bava's visual stylishness and the comic stupidity of the story and the characters somehow makes it watchable. None of these two ingredients would work alone, I think.

+ highly recommended

So much fun. "Muhahahahahahaha!"

Cool movie. Bava's visual style is the best!

Bravo.

Mst3k score: 6/10

It's stylish, pretty, and really really fun. The special effects and obvious green screen, though it may annoy some, actually help the movie look comic-esque. The jump cuts that may make the viewer ponder how Diabolik did something or how something happened may also annoy some viewers but it really helps the film look like a comic where things just happen out of nowhere. Bottom line: zaniest film I've seen.