Kiss Me, Guido (1997) Online

"Kiss Me Guido," written and directed by Tony Vitale, is a little fun piece set in New York's Bronx and lower Manhattan. The light comedy involves mistaken identities, misunderstandings, and mis-pairings, with somewhat stereotypical character types and situations. A sincere and energetic cast is headed by handsome Nick Scotti in an impressive comic performance, and all the players seem to be enjoying themselves with this little romp. I personally found it to be an amusing diversion.

Stereotypes, full of them yes, but behind every stereotype there is a truth or two.... As a person who fits into the two main groups portrayed in this movie and who comes from New York City, I have to say one only need take a stroll through the Village or through the Bronx to see those stereotypes running around!

This movie was good fun, a farce, a case of mistaken identity--the little bits of Italian thrown in made me laugh and think of my own family and how often I heard some of the phrases used in it. Well, I certainly had a friend who was just like Terry and saw plenty of Dakotas running around too.

This little movie holds a mirror up to some who fit the stereotype and says "laugh at yourself" there is humor in life all around us. Note the lack of violence and the theme that the most improbable pair of people may just be able to find that they have something in common. It's not Oscar material--accept it for what it is and have a laugh. Oh yes, Nick Scotti ain't bad to look at either.

KISS ME, GUIDO

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Ultra-Stereo

Writer/director Tony Vitale's comedy of (gay) manners is lightweight, inoffensive stuff distinguished by vivid performances and smart dialogue, but the film refuses to take risks and almost succumbs to blandness as a result. Ultra-cute Nick Scotti is the ultra-macho Italian-American stud who, due to circumstances beyond his control, finds himself rooming with ultra-gay Anthony Barrile. Thereafter, the film basically examines the ways in which these two disparate personalities attempt to reconcile themselves to one another, and how friendships are formed under duress. Gay viewers attuned to Vitale's sensibilities will find themselves laughing out loud at regular intervals, while everyone else will probably smile politely, admiring the witty one-liners while never really 'getting' the joke.

Everything hinges on the appeal of the central characters, and they're a bit of a mixed bag: Despite his rough-hewn exterior, Scotti's character comes across as too much of a nice guy to really pose a threat to anyone - gay or straight - but his performance is so natural and strong that he simply acts poor Barrile right off the screen! Scotti also has the distinct advantage of being devastatingly beautiful, which Vitale exploits in several amusing ways, especially a dream sequence inspired by THE SOUND OF MUSIC(!). Anthony DeSando plays Scotti's brother with an even greater degree of exaggerated studliness, like a firecracker going off on the 4th of July, while Craig Chester enjoys himself as Barrile's camp best friend. The film is charming, safe, and very watchable - and Scotti's only 'gay' kiss in the entire picture is with the one person you'd least expect. Enjoy...

NB. The movie inspired a short-lived TV series, "Some of My Best Friends" (2001), with Jason Bateman as the gay guy, and Danny Nucci as his ultra-hunky straight roommate.

KISS ME GUIDO needs a re write and a remake. It is actually a funny premise fairly well executed, edited and cast...but with far too many stereotypes. Also the sound recording is not good at all. All these negatives still do not outweigh the fact that there is a good movie here waiting to be snazzed up into something played more into the galaxy of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES or PRISCILLA . As a low budget NY gay-ish camp/ Italian comedy it is simple and funny, but seems like a first draft that was made instead of reworking and reinventing and then snaring a better budget and bigger mindset. I like KISS ME GUIDO enough to give it a peck not a smooch. Maybe Tony Vitale can do as I suggest and boost the whole thing up a few octaves and make it bigger and louder and funnier and genuinely raucous. See NORMAN IS THAT YOU from 1976 for pointers....or THE (new musical version) PRODUCERS from Mel Brooks and go there.

A dumb as bricks Italian Frankie (Nick Scotti) unwittingly moves in with a gay guy Warren (Anthony Barrile). He doesn't know Warren is gay--he thinks GWM means "guy with money"!! He finds out and gets along with Warren...but he knows his family and friends won't accept Warren. What to do?

The jokes are obvious and there are some REALLY bad ones, but I still like this. It has stereotypes galore--Frankie's family especially. Frankie's dumb; his brother is seriously over-sexed (and dumb); his mother is fat, loud and obnoxious; his father is fat and always has stomach pains and the grandmother always dresses in black, is always at the kitchen table and doesn't speak a word of English!

Warren is also stereotyped--his apartment is immaculate, he has art paintings all over the walls and he LOVES Julie Andrews. He also has a very queeny (and very funny) gay best friend.

Still, I was giggling and laughing through this. The movie is so good-natured you can't be offended. And it IS a silly movie anyways. And it has a happy ending.

The acting is all pretty good if a little shrill. Scotti especially comes off well. He's also very handsome and we get a few shots of his muscular chest.

So, not good but fun. A true guilty favorite.

Best line: "You threw up on your shirt".

My feeling is that anything goes in a movie, if it is funny enough and clever enough, and it is not mean spirited. Unfortunately this movie is so lame and unfunny that the parade of annoying gay stereotypes (and for that matter straight) is unbearable. Yeah, there are guys like this, but I don't need to watch a dumb boring movie to experience it. Only the lead female character provides some relief from this. Yeah, she may be a stereotype too, but she provides some real comic characterization.

This movie actually made me angry, and just contributes to the perception of gays as being funny entertainment for the masses.

A total bomb.

This film is about a straight man looking for a room to rent, and he stumbles upon a room in a gay man's flat.

After misinterpreting what GWM means, the pizza guy with Italian roots view a nice flat inhabited by a gay actor. Both these guys just had relationship troubles, and they both do not understand each others' lifestyles. After tolerance and understanding, they become great friends. Together with the fun supporting characters, and the numerous romantic entanglements, "Kiss Me Guido" is a fun, light hearted film that entertains. Though it's made with a small budget, it doesn't look cheap. the only thing that bothers me is the old fashioned hairstyles that do not age well.

Kiss Me Guido is a campy, somewhat monolithic but very funny story of "culture clash". The visual appeal is substantial, and the humor is on par with "Will & Grace". It is an excellent vehicle for showing the truth about several sub-cultures of American society without singling out anyone for offensive jabs.

As soon as it is released on DVD it will be in my collection!

Pahtooey!

3 things you might learn from this festering helping of yuck-yuck:

*Italian guys have great tans and work in their parents' pizza shops

*Gay guys dress in drag and straight guys think they're really women

*The best thing about gay films is usually one cute hetero guy on the boxcover

And to think: Some Hollywood yitz dug this floppy flick enough to turn it into the FOX sitcom "Some Of My Best Friends" --a short-lived stinkbomb starring Jason Bateman that was responsible for Some Of Our Worst Nightmares.

Do not rent this movie. Just say Uh-Uh, girl.

dumb, with broad stereotypes, but it was quite funny. I spent my first sixteen years in and Italian neighborhood in the Bronx, and the Italian guys are pretty on the mark. I found the gay guys a little too much of a stereotype, but not enough to ruin the film. I also think it is a mistake to call this a gay film. It is really a light comedy with a gay man and an Italian-American man. If you are looking for something PC with a strong social statement on being gay, don't bother with this film. If you have an open mind, time to kill, and want to laugh, this film is pretty good. And yes, I can believe some guy from the Bronx thinking that GWM means "guy with money."

A few laughs, but the movie for the most part was trite and sitcomish.... The brothe was totally obnoxious.. the only redeeming part of the movie was the awful play... it was a real laugh..

The situation of a straight young macho Italian, suddenly finding himself in a gay environment, has possibilities that were not explored. Scotti was good in the role, and the supporting cast did what they were supposed to to, but it just didn't click. I think that the fault lies in the script, which was funny at times, but rather patchy. I disagree with "Anonymous" of NYC who said that it was "moronic and one dimensional", but I do agree that it could have been better.

I rented this movie after watching the preview for it on another movie and finding the whole concept hilarious.

Ugh, this movie has a couple of really funny lines but after the first 30 minutes it falls totally flat, NOTHING happens at all.

The only possible reason I could see to watch this is if you have to see every single movie with a plot containing openly gay characters, its really, really boring.

2 out of 10

One would hope that an independent, low-budget film would do a better job than the Hollywood productions of handling the gay-vs-straight, mistaken-identity comedy. And while it's nowhere near as offensive as an abomination like 'In & Out' (in fact, I didn't find it offensive at all), 'Kiss Me Guido' isn't as good as I hoped for. It appears to me that at this point Tony Vitale is a better director than writer.

This is a childish piece of one-dimensional stereo-typing which I can't understand for the life of me why anyone would rate above a 3 (1-10). The script has holes bigger than...(insert something big here) and the acting was nothing more than amateur hamming at best. One good thing: Nick Scotti is nice to look at.

It starts weirdly when Frankies brother Pino, gets him a ring for a girl Frankie has his eyes on. He works as a pizza boy but wants to be a full time actor. Finally he gets this girl he likes, to meet him at his house but when Frankie walks in hes very angry (to put it lightly) to find this girl hes always wanted , in a very very different position from standing up and with his brother. He decides to move out and finds in the paper an apartment with GWM which Frankie stupidly thinks means guy with money when it actually means gay white male, Frankie turns up at the door and moves in then realizes that Warren and Terry are gay and decides to sell his ring and get his own apartment but then at the jewelers the man tells him its a fake diamond and hes only going to get $60 for it so Frankie decides to go back to the apartment until he gets work so he can move out. Warren at the start didn't like him due to the fact that 1 hes against gays and 2 he didn't put the ad in the paper terry did even though terry doesn't live there. Cut a very long story short Frankie gets some acting work from Warren's ex boyfriend and Warren starts forgetting about his ex boyfriend and starts to have his eye on Frankie even though Frankie isn't gay. Every thing gets knocked out of place when Warren and Frankie get a big of trouble wile practicing lines from a couple of nasty lads and Warren damages his foot trying to kick them, which means Frankie has to do Warren's parts and warrens ex boyfriend Dakota gets his new boyfriend to play the parts but when its half time Dakota has a big fall out with his boyfriend and Dakota is left to do the rest of Warrens parts and at the end there's a kissing scene in the play and Dakota tells Frankie to kiss him and ....... Frankie finally does *SPOILER BIT* at the end Warren gets in a huge fight because he doesn't want to go out with Dakota and Dakota becomes violent in front of everyone and he says to Warren that basically Warren and Frankie can't be anything because he isn't gay and he really goes violent and Frankie saves the day by kicking Dakota's ass and sends him to the floor (to put it lightly hehe) and him and Warren walk away.

note: there's much more i didn't write about so don't think i wrote the whole story out!

Who could say no to a movie that provides something for everyone! You've got gays, straights, hot italian guys, pretty ladies, comedy and romance, and of course, Pizza! Sometimes I think that my mother is obsessed with this movie, then I watch it again and remember how cute it is.! Kiss Me Guido is a film about people and differences in a gorgeously wonderful package, through gay and NY Italian stereotypes. Nick Scotti (Frankie) and Anthony DeSando (Pino) fill that need for us girls (and guys) crazy for those italian stallion types with hot bodies. Anthony Barrile (Warren) is fabulous and I think that anyone can relate to Warren, searching for love, friends, and professional satisfaction. I personally really relate to Molly Price's Meryl-- not just because we share a first name-- Meryl is a great character and Price plays her with a perfect combination of sweetness and bitterness. I love to sit down and watch Kiss Me Guido on a Saturday with family and friends.

I tried very hard to like this film, and I guess I do--but it's an effort. Despite and discounting the obvious stereotypes, there just isn't that much that's really all that funny in this "comedy" of mistaken identity--so to speak. Not that the actors didn't try really hard! But I found this movie kind of lacking a heart and not especially satisfying to watch. I was pleased, however, that their was no attempt to make a "gay conversion" at the end of the picture.

I saw this movie last night and what a hilarious movie. The neighborhood and characters were so true Italian that I felt I was with my own family. And, Warren and Terry cracked me up. Very funny movie and a cute storyline.

If you don't expect your life to be changed by it, "Kiss Me Guido" is not that much of a disappointment. The cast give it their all, and some of it is very funny. The part of the landlady is right out of classic comedy. Of course a lot of it is obvious, but it's not that awful.

Plenty of confusion and misunderstanding creates a hilarious amount of fun and laughter! The confusion factor is similar to "The Wedding Banquet" and is even more fun to watch. Every part is played perfectly, especially the depressed landlady and how easily she excepts all their flattery (including the confusion caused between herself and the Guido's brother).

It's a movie you could watch over and over again with your friends - definitely a must see comedy!

Although the film looks like a student production and the acting isn't exactly Oscar-worthy, "Kiss Me Guido" provides some cute moments, several laughs, and just enough subject matter to make you go hmmm. Stereotypes abound in the farcical plot, but their use is well done. The gay community is actually presented in more than one dimension, and while Catholics might not appreciate it, the reverse stereotyping of the "guido" works well to prove a point. Not too subtle, but really quite effective, this is probably the best portrayal of homosexuals since "The Birdcage". See it for fun but see it with an open mind.

This movie isn't bad if you've got time to kill. I enjoyed it at least. The premise is good (Scotti thinks GWM means guy with money and winds up with a gay roommate), but could have been explored more. Nevertheless, I might recommend it. It all depends on taste.

** 1/2 out of ****

The characters all had me laughing. I think people take movies a bit too literally. Sometimes a film is just there to entertain us. This is one of those films. I was impressed by Nick Scotti, who is both sexy and talented. I can't wait to see him in more features. Please check out this film. It's worth it trust me.