FLIGHT OF THE INNOCENT (Directed by Carlo Carlei. Starring Manuel Colao, Federico Pacifici, Sal Brogese, Giusi Cataldo)

Critical disdain is usually heaped upon Hollywood remakes of foreign films, suggesting they lack that certain continental class and sophistication, yet this thriller from Italy reeks of Hollywood and practically begs to be remade without subtitles. A child witnesses the massacre of his family and goes on the run. And that’s about it. Flight Of The Innocent is slick, break-neck paced, filled with twists and shot with the kinetic virtuosity and love of false light that often distinguishes (if that is the right word) American product.

Director Carlo Carlei keeps the nails well-bitten, but there is no profundity on offer here. For all its sheen of foreign class, the film is stocked with exploitation clichés: a scar-faced villain, endless shoot-outs, and an edgy visual style: this is Italian film-making with more of a debt to MTV than Fellini’s surrealism or Rosselini’s neo-realism. In fact Carlei is already installed in Hollywood, and probably planning a remake with Macauly Culkin right now.