They Call Me Jeeg

They Call Me Jeeg
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
Production company	Goon Films, Rai Cinema
Distributed by	Lucky Red (Italy) Uncork’d Entertainment (USA)
Release date	October 17, 2015 (2015-10-17) (Rome Film Festival)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian / Romanesco dialect
Budget	€1.7 million
Box office	€5.713.331[1]

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.^[2][3] The plot concerns a lonely misanthropic crook named Enzo, who gets superhuman strength after being affected by radioactive waste in the Tiber waters.

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;^[4] 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 Enzo for him.^[4] The title is also a reference to the spaghetti western film They Call Me Trinity.

The film was nominated for several film industry awards, including seventeen David di Donatello, winning eight. It was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.^[5]

After a successful run in Italian theaters in 2016, the movie is getting a limited release in the US starting March 17, 2017.^[6][7]

Plot

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".

Cast

• Claudio Santamaria as Enzo Ceccotti / "Jeeg"
• Luca Marinelli as Fabio Cannizzaro / The Gipsy
• Ilenia Pastorelli as Alessia
• Stefano Ambrogi as Sergio
• Maurizio Tesei as Biondo
• Francesco Formichetti as Sperma
• Daniele Trombetti as Tazzina
• Antonia Truppo as Nunzia
• Gianluca Di Gennaro as Antonio
• Salvatore Esposito as Vincenzo

Reception

They Call Me Jeeg received positive reviews from critics, who praised the Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances, the screenplay, and the "township" setting.^[8] 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".^[9] Film critic Massimo Bertarelli (it) called it "a masterpiece, to watch at all costs [...] full of fun", praising Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances.^[10] Jay Weissberg from Variety praised the film, calling it "surprisingly gritty and thoroughly enjoyable".^[2] After its US release, the film received a 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on nine reviews (6 "Fresh" and 3 "Rotten"), with an average rating of 6.8/10.^[7]

Awards

Legacy

A comic book based on the film, produced by Lucky Red and La Gazzetta dello Sport, was published in 2016. The comic book is written by Roberto Recchioni, drawn by Giorgio Pontrelli and Stefano Simeone, and with the cover arts by Giacomo Bevilacqua, Leo Ortolani and Zerocalcare, and it takes place after the events of the movie.^[19]

See also

• List of Italian films of 2015

References

External links

• They Call Me Jeeg on IMDb