They Call Me Jeeg (2015)

Enzo, a lonely and misanthropic small time crook, uses the superpowers gained after falling in the Tiber river to chase down a crazy gangster called "The gypsy".

Director:

Gabriele Mainetti

Writers:

Nicola Guaglianone (story), Nicola Guaglianone (screenplay)

Stars:

Claudio Santamaria, Luca Marinelli, Ilenia Pastorelli

17 wins & 26 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Claudio Santamaria	...	Enzo Ceccotti
Luca Marinelli	...	Zingaro
Ilenia Pastorelli	...	Alessia
Stefano Ambrogi	...	Sergio
Maurizio Tesei	...	Biondo
Francesco Formichetti	...	Sperma
Daniele Trombetti	...	Tazzina
Joel Sy	...	Claudietto
Gianluca Di Gennaro	...	Antonio
Salvatore Esposito	...	Vincenzo
Antonia Truppo	...	Nunzia
Juana Jimenez	...	Marcellone
Tommaso Di Carlo	...	Efeso
Giampaolo Crescenzio	...	Pinocchio
Tamken Abdulaziz	...	Corriere #1

Storyline

The film is a strange and anti-hero transposition of a very popular animated manga cartoon in the 80's called Steel Jeeg. Here, a young outlaw (Enzo) is somehow affected by radioactive waste in the Tiber waters in Rome. He subsequently finds out he has gained super powers and interprets them as a reward for never having managed to enter the criminal world that counts. The inside joke reveals itself when Enzo meets Alessia, who believes the charming hero is the personification of the hero in the cartoon she used to watch.

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Plot Keywords:

radioactive waste | insane woman | reference to steel jeeg | super villain | superhero | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Italy] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

25 February 2016 (Italy)

Also Known As:

They Call Me Jeeg Robot

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

EUR1,700,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,973,344

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goon Films, Rai Cinema, Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo (MiBACT)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point in the film, Enzo is asked if he was bitten by a bat in order to become a superhero. Claudio Santamaria (Enzo) previously served as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman for the Italian dubbing of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and also for The Lego Movie's Batman. Also, the off-screen voice heard from a TV reporter in the closing sequence, was provided by Adriano Giannini who dubbed the Joker in the same series of movies.

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Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

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Connections

Spoofs They Call Me Trinity (1970)

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Soundtracks

Un'emozione da poco
Lyrics by Ivano Fossati
Composed by Guido Guglielminetti
Performed by Luca Marinelli
Programming: Michele Braga
Original song courtesy of RCA Italiana/Universal Music Publishing Records

User Reviews

A superhero movie with Italian style

Gabriele Mainetti has made a quite unusual movie for Italian standard. With an outstanding cinematography and a very good acting, he takes us among "Roma sud" outskirts where a neorealistic superhero and a psychopath villain fight to survive their doomed daily lives. As all good graphic novel teach us, this kind of story need a strong philosophy between the lines, that can't be just replaced with some romantic- even if well done- moments. Too bad: "Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot" just lack strong dialogues and quote to be perfect in its own class. In fact, even if actors are perfect in their own roles, all dialogues target their force overall on roman slang, leaving me a little bit disappointed. Because the movie shows some very violent and bizarre scenes, someone in Italy compared Mainetti style to Tarantino's one. I hope next time Mainetti will borrow from Tarantino not just the violence but also the art of writing script and dialogues strong enough for a superhero movie.