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"Amici miei" should be the final movie of Pietro Germi, one of the masters of the Italian comedy. He wrote the script but was unable to direct it because of his illness (he died in 1974, one year before the release of the picture). So the film went to director Mario Monicelli -another excellent "father" of the Italian comedy-, who did a very good job.A group of 45-50 years old Tuscan men escape the fear of death and the fear of the old age in doing jokes and living as if they were kids. The story is very simple and the film is a chain of several gags -but this is a bittersweet comedy, there are also dramatical moments. The film is very politically incorrect but funny and intelligent.The group of actors is harmonious (Noiret, Tognazzi, Celi, Del Prete, Moschin) and Mario Monicelli is at ease with this story.Nevertheless I think "Amici miei" is a little overrated. Even if it is intended so in the script, the characters aren't nice people at all -their jokes sometimes are so heavy and so ferocious that they result hardly funny... These people are very cynical and egoist. I know this film didn't want to be moving in showing middle-age crisis, but I think characters could have been a little bit softer.Apart from that, this is one of the last great comedies of the Italian cinema and is always worth watching it.
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