La discoteca (1983) User Reviews

Dance the night away

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 2 July 2021]

There are so many obscure movies out there ... and some even make it to a streaming service near you. Like this one did for me. Having not read anything about the movie before I watched it (common practice with me), I did not know what this was going to be ... not that I am any wiser after watching it.

There is a lot of dancing and a lot love going around. Not in a way that is explicit by the way. Also since this was the 80s ... well let's say even those surviving that decade realize that it was not pretty - no pun intended. It is not just the clothes, but also the hairstyles people were ... sporting.

I doubt many will find that attractive that is why I mention this. Also the dance moves ... while I personally am a fan of "do you" and dance however you feel like ... I am aware that many "dance critics" out there will find the moves here laughable at best ... not much story to talk about either (although I generally avoid spoilers anyway), so there is not much left ... except some nostalgia still ...

Unfortunately not the Italo-Disco movie I was hoping it would be

[jwtfanning · 5/10 · 14 September 2022]

Italian crooner and comedy misfit Nino D'Angelo bungles around in this pretty dullsville comedy that is slightly misleading in it's title. While it is called "La Discoteca/ The Disco" the disco is sadly actually less of a focus than I'd hoped from the poster.

This is absolutely not "Saturday Night Fever" italian-style nor is it ANYWHERE close to my absolute favourite Italian disco-based movie "Jocks" aka "Music Fever" from 1984. Instead it's more about Nino working various types of jobs at resorts (first at a ski resort in Bolzano, then later on further south in Positano) and yet again chasing lady tail and warbling out various songs. I've hated on his singing before and I still stand beside that.. I just can't deal with it. There's also this continual joke of his boss being a version of Hitler that is totally not funny and also never seems to end.

The main entertaining bits here generally do actually happen at the various discos that exist in both spots Nino is at, especially watching Nino (or what may be a double at some points?) dance, which is some real next level odd residing somewhere between bizarre ancient folk dancing and an epileptic seizure.

This one's only for the real hardcore old school Italian comedy fans or people who can gleam some satisfaction out of gloriously tacky 80s fashion/hair styles/settings while ignoring most of the actual plot.

1983?

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 5 September 2021]

Yes, this movie came out six years after Saturday Night Fever. Well, you know, disco didn't die everywhere. It only died in the places where straight white people thought it was.

Also: Yes, I totally watched this because the poster is amazing.

Mariano Laurenti also directed The Inconsolable Widow Thanks All Those Who Consoled Her, a movie that I've told is such an ineffectual commedia sexy all'italiana that even the goddess Edwige cannot save it. He also made another Fenech film, Beautiful Antonia, First a Nun Then a Demon, which is the kind of title that makes me hunt down a movie.

This was written by Piero Regnoli, who is not made for normal films and is much better suited to scripted aberrant madness like Maciste in King Solomon's Mines - how did Cannon not remake this genre mashup? - as well as Cry of a Prostitute, A Black Ribbon for Deborah (with Gig Young, Bradford Dillman and Marina Malfatti trying to look like she's been reading All of Them Witches), Like Rabid Dogs, Patrick Still Lives, Nightmare City and Gunan, King of the Barbarians. All of these movies would be better choices for you or you could just stare at this poster and listen to some Chic or Giorgio Moroder and have a much better evening.

If you liked Laurenti's Un jeans e una maglietta but wanted it to be a disco movie with someone who looks like a German leader of ill standing running a hotel, well, this is for you. I mean, the dude's name is Ghitler. That's an example of the level of hilarity we're dealing with here.

Nino D'Angelo, who stars in this, also sang a few songs, including one called "My Song." He's also obviously dance doubled by someone much shorter than he is. I mean, he needed extra money so he went to the Swiss Alps to make pizza and gets mad when people call him pizza. He is certainly not setting the floor of 2001 Odyssey ablaze any time soon.

Laurenti and D'Angelo also teamed for Uno scugnizzo a New York, Pop corn and chips, Fotoromanzo and Attenti a noi due. Now that I have written this sentence, my need to complete things means that I must now endure all of these.