Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Watch Out, We’re Mad’ on Netflix, a Madcap Italian Comedy Remake About Two Dorks and Their Dune Buggy

Netflix’s Watch Out, We’re Mad remakes a 1974 Italian comedy of the same name, about a pair of clodpolls obsessed with a dune buggy. You know – having the dune buggy, losing the dune buggy, reacquiring the dune buggy, being upset when the dune buggy gets damaged, stuff like that. Directed by an entity known as Younuts (a.k.a. Niccolo Celaia and Antonio Usbergo, who also helmed Under the Riccione Sun for Netflix), this update casts Edoardo Pesce and Alessandro Roja as guys who call themselves brothers even though they aren’t brothers, long estranged because they lost the dune buggy and reunited by the prospect of reacquiring the dune buggy. The whole point of this is to tickle funny bones; let’s see if it succeeds.

WATCH OUT, WE’RE MAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: THEY WAS SWINDLED. Carezza and Sorriso were just a couple of kids joyriding in their dads’ dune buggy – a real sharp one, cherry red with a yellow canvas top – when two older guys took it from them. I think it’s implied that the dads are the guys from the original movie, or maybe they’re gay, who knows; the exact nature of everyone’s relationship here isn’t clear, nor is it particularly important, because this movie is patently ridiculous. Gotta stop getting hung up on the details here, because the movie wants you to, as they say, just go with it.

MANY YEARS LATER, Carezza (Pesce) and Sorriso (Roja) are estranged. The former owns an auto-repair shop. The latter – who knows what he does. “Sorriso” translates to “Smiley” so it’s implied that he’s a con artist or something. A road rally pits them against each other for a grand prize: the very same 1974 dune buggy they once lost. Maybe it’s not the very same one; could be the very same year, model and color. Either way, it’s in impeccable shape for being MANY YEARS old now. Again, details, who needs ’em? The important thing is, Carezza and Sorriso – you’re never gonna believe this – they TIE the race, for chrissake, and have to share the prize, although neither wants to share, of course. They decide to have a beer-quaffing and hot dog-eating contest to determine who gets to keep the dune buggy, which is as logical a competition to determine dune buggy ownership as anything I could come up with. And wouldn’t you know it, while they’re eating and drinking themselves stupider than they already are, someone steals the damn thing.

By this point, some contextual miscellanea has been established: Our protagonists live in a very dusty rural area lorded over by a rich sonuvabitch named Torsillo (Christian De Sica), and it’s implied that he’s a mob boss; his son Raniero (Francesco Bruni) is a Very Handsome Idiot. Torsillo’s enforcers aren’t ex-military private-security beefsteaks; no, he’s old-school as hell, employing the Cobras, a gang of black-leather motorcycle toughs led by a grizzled slice of beef jerky named Scajone (Massimiliano Rossi). Nearby, a similarly old-school circus, complete with abused elephants and exploited little people, led by MIriam (Alessandra Mastronardi), is the object of Torsillo’s harassment. He wants that land to develop into a resort or (gag) mixed-use condo-retail swath of concrete, you know, something that’ll make a crapload of dough. All these characters and a few more barely worth mentioning are on a collision course with hilarious calamity, because Torsillo’s moron son is the one who stole the dune buggy, and none of it matters in the slightest.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I dunno man, this one stirs up some weird reference points for me. Here goes: It’s like Herbie Goes Bananas meets the biker gang and bareknuckle fighters from Every Which Way But Loose meets a toned-down version of the insane circus from Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre.

Performance Worth Watching: Nobody really has much of a character to play here, but Mastronardi plays a tough-gal type of implied Romani origin who brought to mind Penelope Cruz in that one Pirates of the Caribbean movie – you know, the crappy one. If that sounds like a dubious compliment, well, that’s intentional.

Memorable Dialogue: In case you’re not 100 percent certain about Torsillo’s role as the villain of this story, he flat-out declares, “It’s more fun getting things when you don’t deserve them!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Watch Out, We’re Mad isn’t exactly drop-dead hilarious, but it isn’t the würstel either. It establishes Carezza as the tough guy who can open-hand slap the freckles off a giraffe, and Sorriso as the slick fast-talking fella who can weasel-hustle the cash right outta your wallet – and never dares bother to pretend feigning interest in developing them as characters, quite intentionally so. They’re surrounded by colorful wacky types who are just as thinly rendered, and good for a gag or three. Younuts mix and match and shake and stir everyone in a quest for comedy, and the results are at best occasionally smirkworthy, although fans of the original film are probably deftly snagging references from the fray like a frog’s tongue at a fly orgy.

The dune buggy is an obvious MacGuffin, an excuse to stage fights, races and other comic shenanigans rendered medium-lively by its directors, who don’t hesitate to drop in animated comic-book panel for no particular aesthetic reason (although possibly to coverup shoddily staged action and/or pad the skimpy run time). Nothing here is particularly remarkable — although the road-rally sequence isn’t rendered with enough energy to get us invested in its dramatic stakes, or with enough clarity to help us determine who is driving which car, stuff that surely deserves remark. The chases are a lot of motion and dirt and dented fenders, junk shots and choppy edits, and are we not entertained? It’s tempting to say the movie’s about competitiveness and brotherly dynamics, but that’d be trying to stretch a wetsuit over a whale. Saying it’s about more than its own silliness does it and you and me intellectual disservice.

Our Call: All ridiculous things considered, Watch Out, We’re Mad misses its comedy target more than it hits. So in the spirit of the movie, I’ll half-heartedly toss out a recommendation to SKIP IT and wonder if the original – obscure to most of us English-speakers – is any better.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.