I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

After finding the 2014 War film Fury to be rather disappointing,I decided to not set foot on the battle field for a while,but found my plans to quickly change,when I noticed that a DVD seller had tracked down a War film which I had seen be highly praised by fellow IMDbers,which led to me once again getting ready to enter a war zone.The plot-Italy-1943:Listening to the radio,a small army unit led by Lt. Alberto Innocenzi finds out that Italy has decided to leave the Axis behind,and has just signed an armistice with the Allies.Before getting a chance to make sense of what has taken place,German troops invade Innocenzi's base.Getting covered with gunfire from their former Axis partner,Innocenzi and his men escape from the base.Finding themselves without any order of command,Innocenzi and his former troop each decide to try and make the long journey home,but soon discover that war has become the new home for them and the country.View on the film:Placing Innocenzi and his men in the cross-hairs of Italy's sudden armistice,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with..deep breath! Agenore Incrocci/ Furio Scarpelli & Marcello Fondato)director Luigi Comencini battles with the crossing of a tense War Drama with Comedy.Staying on the edge that the infamous (and never seen!) Jerry Lewis movie The Day the Clown Cried fell off,the writers take a very smart,mature approach to the comedic elements,with the very funny comedy moments coming from Innocenzi and his former troop finding themselves free from taking any orders,but not from the unfolding horror of War that they find themselves in,which are loosely based on the WWII events that took place in Italy in 1943.As they all try to return home,the writers brilliantly increase the dramatic tension of the title at a gradual pace,with Innocenzi finding out that his real family is his soldiers,as the worn-down Innocenzi is told by family members that he must continue to back the fascist forces.Opening with German troops overrunning an army base, Comencini and cinematographer Carlo Carlini give the action scenes a thrilling bite with excellent,vast wide shots which put the viewer right in the midst of the action,and bullets fly pass Innocenzi makes his journey home.Keeping the tension building off the battlefield,Comencini uses closely-held tracking shots to reveal the close friendship between Innocenzi and his former troop.Stopping fellow Comedy actor Nino Manfredi from getting a role, (which led to him being the only Comedy actor in the film) Alberto Sordi gives a marvellous performance as Innocenzi,with Sordi showing Innocenzi become increasingly disconnected to the local support for the war,as Sordi makes Innocenzi hard stone face break,due to developing a moral compass for the safe return home of his men.Following Innocenzi every step of the way, Serge Reggiani gives a fantastic performance as Geniere Assunto Ceccarelli,thanks to Reggiani hitting the Comedy with a delightful light touch,which explodes as Reggiani smoothly moves Ceccarelli over being desperate about getting other people safely home from the war.

I saw this film over 50 years ago and I have never forgotten it. It was a minor masterpiece in the full bloom of Italian cinema by independents among others Pietro Germi. 'Tutti a casa' is a comedy about four demobbed cowardly soldiers happy to get out of the war to get home to Naples. While I laughed at the self mockery of the main actors over their cowardice suddenly in the middle of a belly laugh an arresting scene occurs on a train when German soldiers take off a Jewish girl they had been befriending and shoot her off screen.Tragedy in the middle of comedy???? Hard to believe but the touch of genius by the producers of this stunning film got away with it. Our cowardly protagonists get home to Naples just at the same time that the Germans turn on the napolitani for their four day stand off and we see them picking up a gun at the end of a movie. all they ever wanted as delightfully cowardly Napoltani was to go home make love and eat spaghetti. Life and death superbly juggled in a film which opened a deep philosophical synergy in me by an unknown genius

September 8th, 1943: Badoglio, head of the Italian government after the downfall of Mussolini, declares an armistice towards the Allied forces. Thousands of soldiers are left without any order, while king Vittorio Emanuele III packs and runs. In a nation ravaged by war and still occupied by the former German allies, now it's every man for himself.In the early Sixties, Italian cinema was desperately trying to come to terms with the nation's recent, painful mistakes. Tutti a Casa features a selfish, roguish protagonist ultimately finding his moral compass and taking a stand - achieving not victory, but dignity. The same happens in La Grande Guerra, Il Generale Della Rovere, I Due Colonnelli, I Due Nemici, in a valiant - if overly optimistic - attempt to wash the national dirty linen in public.Tutti a Casa is the best of these movies. Monicelli captures with a deft hand and his trademark bittersweet style the adventures of a group of soldiers led by their officer (Alberto Sordi) right after Sep. 8th.Meanwhile, in the same years a new tone emerged in Italian comedies like Il Sorpasso, Divorzio all'Italiana and Una Vita Difficile: in spite of a surprising economic rebirth, a deep-rooted sense of mistrust and disappointment returns, as reaction morphs once again into stagnation. The circle closes with C'Eravamo Tanto Amati, pretty much sealing off any illusion.8/10

A historical premises.... After the armistice of the 8 th September 1943, Italys defeated army literally collapsed.Italy effectively had switched sides in the world war alliances,allied with USA against Nazi Germany,leaving many Italian army units in the lurch....and the Nazi German army invasion a few weeks later! Some units joined the the Anglo-Americans and valiantly fought with them,a few more joined the Fachist militias of the Salò regime in Northern Italy sustained by Nazi troops which together perpetuated massacres of civilians. However a large number of Italian army units,just melted like snow in a sunny spring day,disappearing or rather deserting in mass,prefering like the title of the film "..to return home". The films spirit is basically about a strong desire of war weary soldiers to return back home to their families. Something which apparently would seem an easy task....but not in this film!!This film retaining a deep tragic undertone has also some hilarious scenes of the more tragi-comical style,which was typical of the post neo-realistic film scripts of Italian cinema in the 1950's and 1960's,(The best period of Italian cinema).An absolute "must see film" for Italo-philes and fans of Italian cinema.Strangely enough,this film has never been much appreciated in Italy,and it is hard to find as video-cassette both for renting or buying.My vote 9.