Everybody Wants to Be Italian is a 2008

2008 in film

This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...

 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 romantic comedy film

Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...

 written and directed by Jason Todd Ipson

Jason Todd Ipson

Jason Todd Ipson is an American director, screenwriter, producer, fashion photographer and licensed physician and surgeon. Transitioning from surgical residency to the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1999, he went on to form Asgaard Entertainment as well as write/direct the theatrically released...

. The screenplay focuses on the relationship between a blue collar worker and a veterinarian

Veterinarian

A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....

.

The film premiered at the Boston Film Festival

Boston Film Festival

Boston Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September....

 on September 18, 2007 but did not go into theatrical release until September 5, 2008.

Plot

Jake Bianski is the owner of a fish market in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. For the past eight years he actively has pursued his former girlfriend Isabella, despite the fact she is married and has three children.

Anxious to put an end to their boss' obsession with his one-time love, Steve Bottino and Gianluca Tempesti arrange for him to meet veterinarian Marisa Costa at a dance for singles at the local Italian club. On their first date, a deluded Jake confesses he is involved with another woman and suggests he and Marisa become friends rather than lovers.

After years of rejecting Jake's advances, Isabella finally leaves her husband, and she and her children move into Jake's small apartment above his fish store. Before long, her husband has convinced her to return home, and Jake finally admits he and Isabella have no future together. He follows Marisa to Italy, where he discovers she is involved with another man, but once again Jake refuses to accept reality and, determined to win her back, he begins to woo Marisa.

Cast

• Jay Jablonski ..... Jake Bianski
• Cerina Vincent
  Cerina Vincent
  Cerina Vincent is an American film actress, and model best known for playing the Yellow Ranger Maya in the television series Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, a naked foreign exchange student in Not Another Teen Movie, and Marcy in Cabin Fever. She is considered a scream queen.-Early life:Vincent was...
  
   ..... Marisa Costa
• John Kapelos
  John Kapelos
  John Kapelos is a Canadian actor from London, Ontario. He is best known for his portrayals of janitor Carl Reed in The Breakfast Club and Detective Donald Schanke in Forever Knight....
  
   ..... Steve Bottino
• John Enos III
  John Enos III
  John Enos III is an American actor, known for the role of Bobby Marsino in the soap opera The Young and the Restless from 2003 to 2005. Enos' other screen credits include guest roles on NYPD Blue, Sex and the City , Melrose Place and Murder, She Wrote...
  
   ..... Gianluca Tempesti
• Marisa Petroro
  Marisa Petroro
  Marisa Petroro is an American actress and model.-Biography:Marisa was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When she was 4 years old, Marisa first started to perform in beauty pageants...
  
   ..... Isabella
• Richard Libertini
  Richard Libertini
  Richard Libertini is an American stage, film and television actor known for playing numerous character roles and his ability to speak in numerous accents....
  
   ..... Papa Aldo Tempesti
• Tammy Pescatelli
  Tammy Pescatelli
  Tammy Pescatelli is a comedian originally from Perry, Ohio. In 2010 she won Comedy Central's Standup Showdown. Tammy is a regular "friend of the show" of the Bob & Tom Show. Pescatelli was on the second and third seasons of Last Comic Standing and finished in the finals both seasons...
  
   ..... Katerina
• Dan Cortese
  Dan Cortese
  Daniel James "Dan" Cortese ; born September 14, 1967) is an American actor, director and spokesperson. He is known for his roles as Perry Rollins on Veronica's Closet and as Vic Meladeo on What I Like About You.-Early life:...
  
   ..... Michael
• Penny Marshall
  Penny Marshall
  Penny Marshall is an American actress, producer and director.After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley...
  
   ..... Teresa

Critical reception

Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times called the film "atrocious" and "painfully humorless" with "annoying characters navigating unbelievable situations."

Matt Prigge of Philadelphia Weekly

Philadelphia Weekly

Philadelphia Weekly , is an award-winning alternative newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published every Wednesday.The paper was founded in 1971 as a sister publication to the South Philadelphia Press. In 1995, the paper became Philadelphia Weekly...

rated the film C+, calling it "a pleasant but entirely forgettable bit of fluff" and "merely standard genre fare with a couple decent ideas and a refreshing lack of sentimentality." He added, "At 105 minutes, Italian is far too slack, but it radiates a certain low-watt charm - the jokes aren't particularly notable, but at least they keep coming. The movie is basically one long half-grin: It's consistently almost-funny, well-acted and it generally doesn't make you want to pound stakes into your eyes."

Justin Chang of Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

called the film "clumsy but inoffensive" and added, "To his credit, writer-director Jason Todd Ipson mostly avoids the shrill stereotyping of My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...

. . . Relentless accordion music adds grating ambience, and the inevitable Italy-set coda looks none too authentic. Dead fish in Jake's market are by far the pic's freshest elements."

Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer observed, "Full of clunky humor, battle-of-the-sexes musings and spicy accordion music, Everybody Wants to Be Italian is relentless - but not necessarily relentless fun."

DVD release

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

 released the film in anamorphic widescreen

Anamorphic widescreen

Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...

format
on DVD on February 3, 2009. Bonus features include commentary with screenwriter/director Jason Todd Ipson and editor Mike Saenz, deleted scenes, and cast interviews and screen tests.

External links

• Official website
• Everybody Wants to be Italian at Rotten Tomatoes