To me, this movie is perfection.

Beautiful, moving film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Thief Diabolik wreaks havoc on a generic European country for his own financial gain and amusement. He shares an extravagant underground lair with his curvaceous, yet shallow girlfriend...who uses her looks and allure, to help Diabolik kill innocent people and steal billions from the government. Because of the origins of his wealth, Diabolik must face off against bumbling cops and revenge-seeking mafia........You done just see this film, you experience it, because its one of the most trippy, psychedelic, and surreal movies you will ever see. Yes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, has that trippy sequence, and all around stoner feel to it, but this is just blatantly in your face bonkers.For starter, we are rooting for a quite despicable person, a murderer, a robber, who in any normal film would be the main villain, but here, you cannot help but like him, because the film almost brainwashes you to do so, as the other characters are so superfluous to the narrative.Law is brilliant as the titular character, and proves that he made some wonderful decisions in the sixties, as this, along with Barbarella, are two of the most iconic movies from that decade. Yes, there are more popular movies, but these two films are referenced so many times, that you may think you've already seen them numerous times before.It out Bonds Connery, and Myers could only wish Austin Powers will be as fresh a this still feels thirty years from now.The soundtrack is wonderful, and although the film makes no sense in the slightest, it's still an amazing piece of cinema....

Not that this movie was about a spy but actually about a thief, the format is very much like the James Bond movies that had gained popularity in the '60s when this movie was made. Diabolique (John Phillip Law) is a high profile thief who mock at the government's ineptness to catch him. He has a partner Eva (Marisa Mell) who helps him with his capers. He has a lavish lifestyle, but also few enemies which is trying to kill him. All of them are closing in on him, but it's Diabolique's ingenuity that will get him his way.The movie is very well crafted. The cinematography of Mario Bava will match any James Bond movies, but the location isn't as outrageous as the Bond movies, and has a more domestic European feel to it. The lavish style, and the mood is almost identical between this movie and the 007 series, but focus is bit weaker in this movie because the Diabolique character doesn't have as much purpose to what he does compared to 007. Similarity might not be coincidental if you consider that Albert Broccoli the producer of the James Bond series, Mario Bava, and Deno Delonetiis are all Italians. The beautiful brilliance that're common to Italian movies are abundantly obvious in this one as well. I liked this movie out of all of Mario Bava's movies because it's not as macabre as his other horror movies. Everything is quite beautiful in this movie which makes it worth watching including the two stars John Phillip Law, and Marisa Mell. If you've never seen Marisa Mell, it's worth watching the movie just to see her.

I knew director Bava mainly from his horror movies before I watched this colorful comic adaption. Surely it gives you a rough first idea if I describe "Danger: Diabolik" as a mixture of an early Bond with Batman plus the 60s psychedelia and sexiness of "Barbarella", but it is even more. First, it is quite anarchic, for example when Diabolik blows up the ministry of finance so nobody needs to pay his taxes anymore, after all the documents were destroyed. Second, in opposite to most of its contemporaries, it doesn't show the cartoon characters as simplified shallow people - Diabolik (John Philip Law) is a strong character, he has a so much love for his girlfriend (Marisa Mell) that he is willing to pay any price to rescue her. Third, the movie totally lacks a convenient, nice, healthy moral. Diabolik commits crimes just for fun, gets away with it and intends to keep all the money for no reason except to take a bath in it! Fourth, the former photographer Bava creates a visual style (and manages to keep its pace throughout the movie) that is surprising you with highly original shots again and again - it's just like turning a page in a comic book and - whoa! - see something new. Stylistically, "Danger: Diabolik" was ahead of its time for sure. Adolfo Celi plays a similar villain as in "Thunderball" (although I am sure he was capable of much more as an actor, but he can't show that in this movie), the poorly dubbed Michel Piccoli has a lot of plans to capture Diabolik just to fail again and again, Terry-Thomas grimaces as a panicking minister. That makes a good international cast, but it's a must-see in the first place for the camera work and speedy fun and action. By the way, if you get this on DVD, don't watch the included trailer first, because it has a real spoiler in it.

MASTER PLAN: steal everything. Based on the Italian fumetti/comic strip, this was director Bava's follow-up to "Dr.Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" and, at first glance, would seem merely a slight upgrade from that earlier unfortunate campy fiasco. But, with the availability of a decent DVD version, the picture's strengths become more readily apparent. Bava's ability with design and color enables a fairly successful transposition from comic books to movie screens. Many might point to "Dick Tracy"(90) as another such heartfelt attempt to capture comic strip ambiance on the screen, but that one was far more blatant & apparent. Bava's creativity due to a lack of a huge budget resulted in a more subtle interpretation of comic book action, as incongruous as that sounds when talking about an adaptation of a comic strip. Some of the images here, whether large buildings or close-ups, are startling - something seems a little off in the image but you're not sure what it is. When you think about it or view it again, you realize it's a comic book come to life. Bava was also fond of filming a frame within the frame, resulting in some intriguing compositions. This also invites comparisons to "Barbarella," released a little later. But, Barbarella's images are awfully static when compared to all the movement we see here - everything and everyone moves here - whether on foot, in a sports car or on motorcycles.Since this was the sixties, one also can't help but think of the James Bond craze of this period. The obvious difference between this and the Bond imitators is that the central character is a villain, not some agent-hero. Diabolik (Law) specializes in outrageous acts of thievery; at the point the film begins, the establishment (government & police) are well aware of him, to the point that they resort to unusual methods of transporting valuables in an attempt to avoid him; of course, they fail. Diabolik wears a weird comic book-styled suit, with a mask that covers the lower half of his face; yet, you can still see the outline of his mouth. He also has a weird, sinister laugh, though this is not over-indulged. He operates from a fantastic underground hideout, an expansion of the Batcave from the "Batman" TV show. Of course, he does not work with the authorities but against them, a rather subversive message in those pre-Watergate times, where-in the audience is placed in the position of rooting for this, at best, anti-hero; but, remember, this is from Italy (see Sergio Leone's 'Man-With-no-Name' western trilogy). Also, rather than hanging out with a younger version of himself, as Batman did, this guy gets it on with a cool chick; ah, yes, the villains do have all the fun. Keep in mind, though, his violence does extend to killing cops, so it's not just a laughing matter.There's no 'main' plot line; the authorities make a deal with a local bigshot gangster (Celi, the villain from "Thunderball") to capture or eliminate Diabolik, but this plot is wrapped up way before the conclusion. The story switches to an attack by Diabolik on all the economic bastions of power, a rather direct act of terrorism (though there are no realistic repercussions, such as showing fatalities) and then there's some climactic action involving all the gold on a moving train. It's as if the filmmakers took several disparate plots from the comic strip and welded them together in one film; but, it holds together pretty well, against expectations. The ending is a little on the eerie side. Since this is, overall, an amusing and even silly take on the super-hero/super-villain genre, it may be why "Mystery Science Theater 3000" chose it as one of the films they made fun of, an honor they saved for the most silly movies out there. But, this has enough esoteric style and panache to place it above those clunkers and MSTK3 should have saved their efforts for some other truly dumb film. Anti-Hero:6 Villain:6 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:7 Gadgets:6 Auto:7 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:6