It's cheesy,corny as hell and comedic just like the old romantic comedies.It's about time they went back to old school,who want's these so called dark comedies there depressing. Take a holiday from real life and watch this light hearted romantic comedy. I'm really surprised by all the negative reviews, maybe they like watching depressing movies. Or maybe I just like cheesy like my Pizza's. I really wasn't expecting this film to be so funny and entertaining it really brightened up my day. You can always tell why a comedy is funny by the short clips at the credits of the actors having fun making the film. If they have fun making it,it's always more fun to watch. Romantic comedy of the year for me. Loved it more please! Like another reviewer said eat pizza whilst watching it. Have fun!

I dont understand all the bad reviews, this movie it is what is: funny, cheesy, corny.. and what? Sometimes, we need to be reminded to what truly is life about: family, friendship, and specially love...

Wacht it having a pizzza!!!

I thought this movie was great!!! I felt the connection with Nikki and Leo and on top of that the love of the grandparents!!! I love the family compontens and sense of community... A heartfelt love story of two bestfriends reconnecting...

Rom-Com with predictable story, pre-determined by the title. Sweet story where love continues to bloom over time. Even if the families are at odds.

I enjoyed it, put a smile on my face.

Noticed the negative comments. Today, we are a beautiful evolving country (Canada) blend. Where were a mixed bag of stereotypes and off beat, not so much the norm.

Andrea Martin always brings a smile to my face. She is unique and beautiful as the first day I met her years ago on Bloor street in Toronto.

Thank you for a sweet movie. Much needed in these tough times. Love smiling.

Love! People are hating because they're judging these actors on past roles. This is predictable yes, but soooo cute. I love! Give it a chance and you'll fall for it too!

All cast is great, their performance of their role is???????? Super good, great movie

Just because a movie is what people call "cliche", doesn't mean its inherently bad. While yes, there are aspects to this movie that are indeed cliche, it does not define Little Italy as a whole. Going into this movie I expected it to be romance focused and while that certainly is a highlight, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I laughed and found this movie to be genuinely funny and quirky. The two families and their relationships are crazy and chaotic, but I found them to be endearing and relatable in one way or another. So while I can't say this movie is the be all and end all of rom-coms, it was certainly worth the watch and doesn't deserve the bad ratings.

Two households, each bereft of dignity, At College-Bathurst, where we lay our scene, With "paisano" stereotyped ethnicities And more clichés than should be on big screens. From forth the pizza shops of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life. I'm kidding! None dies or even comes to blows Though wish it otherwise I'll bet you might.

Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts are the unlucky, not-very-Italian actors saddled with performing in this modern-day Romeo and Juliet, set in Toronto's Little Italy and scrubbed clean of any poisonings, sword fights or deadly misunderstandings. (On the plus side, no gnomes!)

In spite of a 10-year age gap between the actors, we're meant to believe Leo and Nikki were childhood buddies growing up in neighbouring pizza shops, one run by Vince (Gary Basaraba), the other by Sal (Adam Ferrara). The two pie-stros were once best friends themselves, but had a falling out years ago; the reason is revealed at the end of the film and is no more worth the 100-minute wait than a delivered pizza would be.

Anyway, cut to the present day, when the kids are now in love but just don't know it yet. Nikki has just returned from England, where she's an up-and-coming chef. Leo continues to work in his dad's pizzeria, and moonlights at Luigi's bar, where the big joke is that Luigi (Andrew Phung) is actually Chinese.

Oh, and speaking of ethnic insensitivity, both pizza shops have resident Indian waitpersons (Vas Saranga, Amrit Kaur) who hurl insults at each other and - is this a spoiler? I'm going to say no - eventually fall for each other as well. But my favourite bit of colour-blind, accent-deaf casting had to be Andrea Martin as Nikki's granny, who delivers all her lines while staring into the distance as though waiting for a paycheque. Between this and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, she's become the go-to older relative of whatever nationality you need.

Little Italy was directed by Donald Petrie - Mystic Pizza; I know! - from a script by Steve Galluccio (Mambo Italiano) and Vinay Virmani (Dr. Cabbie). William Shakespeare's name is not in the credits, although the filmmakers were kind enough to include the rarely used scene from Act IV where Romeo chases Juliet through an airport. Otherwise, it's a pained mish-mash of rom-com clichés, including old people being horny and making Beyoncé references.

The leads have a soupçon of chemistry, most of its predicated on Roberts' squeaky laugh and Christensen's ability to be gentlemanly while drunk. But it's not enough to recommend this tired outing. I'd advise you to walk pasta theatre that's showing it.

Movies are about a journey that takes u away from ur boredom and put a smile on ur face.. add a joy and thrill to ur feelings.

I think movies are either this.. and if not, at least movies are about advices or messages that can be seen or reached!! (LITTLE ITALY) is a cute-charming-simple movie that offers u that entertaining journey with a message !!

remember.. (WE COULD BOTH WIN) (we may not have it all together.. but together, we have it all)

those quotes have been proofed right by the story of the movie with a touch of love and comedy.. of course not in my very top list, but really glad that i watched it.

This is a corny movie, but it is sweet and cute. I don't understand the bad reviews I really liked it. I was worried I wouldn't because of the reviews but it was really good if you like sweet movies.

So simple story, funny in some parts, nothing special, but it fun to watch

It was a predictable rom-com but it had some laughs. I enjoyed it far more than Crazy Rich Asians.

It isn't Oscar material but it isn't a 1/10 either.

For being a Canadian production, I was pleasantly surprised as they have a reputation for being really bad.

It is a waste of time and money. It has so many cliches and embarresing moments.

Little Italy is cheesier than all the pizza in the world. It tries desperately to be a modern day Romeo and Juliet story but fails to add interesting conflict or stakes. It is incredibly dull and low-energy.

The acting is typical of a romantIc comedy, failing to be relatable or charming, and worst yet funny. Rather than have characters react realistically, they wait for a couple of seconds for the camera to focus on them to delivery their dumb one-liner response. The movie feels the need to show you the same moment over and over with each character in the scene getting their chance at dropping a dumb one-liner. It's a shame, since I don't think Hayden Christensen is a terrible actor, but unfortunately his long hiatus from film is ended by a bottom-tier romantic comedy. There isn't much chemistry between the two leads, as it basically equates to PG porn. There is barely any depth to any of the characters due to a lack of struggle or calls to action, and they just meander and execute simple jokes and the occasional gag from time to time.

The music is rather awful, as the pop songs really contradict the more traditional Italian tunes throughout. The modern pop songs are some of the least romantic pieces of music that have ever been written and seen like a desperate attempt at pulling in teenage girls into this film that will probably be way too boring for them anyways. The sound design as a whole is pretty bad as their idea of adding energy is to just fade the volume of the music so it gets louder and louder as the scenes go on.

Despite being a movie boasting Italian culture, there is a huge lack of it here. There are many beautiful vistas in Italy, but we spend the vast majority of the film's time trapped in unromantic cramped spaces like kitchens and restaurants rather than landmarks.

This movie is funny - Not! It has stupid jokes that counter the way reality works. One of the most annoying tropes in dumb comedies is that of marijuana turning people into party animals. Pot is snuck into pizza sauce which leads to rambunctious grandma's dancing and getting frisky rather than just taking a nap. There are also several incredibly lazy jokes at the expense of an Indian character that equate to references to popular culture that dumb-dumbs would understand, like calling him Pizzadog Millionaire or something along those lines, or having him make a joke about an Indian woman's mom being a sacred 'cow' as an insult, and making bizarre innuendos in an exaggerated accent. There's also other standout unfunny jokes such as an art old man saying "Ow, my vagina!" rather than angina, which is a heart condition. There are a grand total of zero clever jokes throughout the whole film.

There's some random social commentary thrown in the absence of character rather than adding personality to a character. Out of nowhere a character drops a sob story about how they got kicked out by their dad after coming out as a homosexual towards the end of the movie, and it's essentially a throwaway piece of dialogue that doesn't really amount to anything in the little grand scheme of things.

Little Italy is a lame romantic comedy that isn't funny or charming and has nothing of interest to offer anyone but the least demanding of moviegoers. It almost feels like the theaters are where you go for films that are too bad, even for Netflix. If you're really desperate for some Romeo and Juliet, you'd be better off seeing them in Sherlock Gnomes. This film's more mind numbing than drinking a gallon of absinthe.

From the very first scene u feel thrown into a story already told. i really wanted to like this movie. Anakin just can not love again after Padme. u can tell by his face that he still has the dark side in him.. he used to be so handsome.

all of the characters in this movie feel distant. its like ur watching a movie of a movie.. cant really explain it better than that..

i didnt really get thru the hole thing.. havent deleted it yet.. maybe ill give it another go just cuz hayden is in it... dunno..

I agree with all the critics for once. Stereotypes abound, bad acting, male lead too old, preposterously ridiculous scenes. People saying and doings things that nobody in their right minds or with an ounce of pride would ever say or do. In future when bored and needing to be entertained, I'll stay home and watch reruns of Hee Haw.

102 Minutes of clichés; it is not even remotely funny. Seldom seen such a bad movie.

How do they get well known actors to play in such an embarrassing piece? Skip it!

"Little Italy" - set in Toronto's Italian community - details the rivalry between two side-by-side pizza joints with the movie following the grown-up children of both sides (Hayden Christensens & Emma Roberts) as they find themselves falling for one another. Basically, "Little Italy" is a millennial's Romeo & Juliet, but in 2018 film looks, feels and plays like a VHS movie from two decades earlier. The real problem is that "Little Italy" is just to bland, with nothing we don't expect happening and the whole show moving steadily to an ending that is threadbare to the point of see through. Alyssa Milano and Jane Seymour are wasted in a pair of throwaway parts well beneath their talents, and even if both do what they can there's just nothing memorably substantive the actresses can do to make their performances memorable. Grandparents of the main characters (Danny Aiello and Andrea Martin) for me, unfortunately, had more charisma than Christensen and Roberts. Perhaps if grandparents were the protagonists instead of younger couple, this film would've been a much more engrossing and entertaining slice of romantic comedy. Also be warned, you will be hungry and will have persistent pizza cravings after watching, at least I did. 5-/10

Here's the thing. By all standards this movie is terrible and you shouldn't watch it. When my boyfriend found out this was supposed to take place in Toronto's Little Italy, which is absolutely nothing like what is depicted in this movie and definitely does not have a ferris wheel, we knew this would be exactly the kind of hot garbage we like to hate-watch together. And hate-watch it we did.

I would guess that the writers had done no research beyond reading about Italian people on Wikipedia. The characters eat nothing but pizza the entire movie. They drink nothing but espresso the entire movie. They drop everything for impromptu soccer matches, grow basil on their roofs, and have cans of tomatoes literally everywhere. At one point somebody says "You can take the girl out of Little Italy, but you can't take Little Italy out of the girl," and that's both the best and worst line in the entire movie.

This is one of those films that's hard to review. I give it 5 stars not because of its quality, but because it's interesting and it provided entertainment. I loved making fun of this movie. Sometimes I can't sleep without white noise, and the last few nights my white noise of choice was this movie, and I had the most peaceful rest ever. I've felt compelled to rewatch it simply because it exists in an uncanny valley that is neither so-bad-its-good nor so-good-its-good. I give it five stars because that's what it deserves.

Great acting, great emotion. I do not nderstand negative reviews. Very good story of friendship and romance. For anyone emotional.

A sweet rom com that is a joy compared to what's out there now a days! An innocent little movie about two life long friends who come back together after 5 years apart. It's funny, quirky and full of family values! It will leave you feeling happy and wanting to eat some really great pizza!

PROS I liked the relationship between the two leads and was rooting for them.

The film is one of the few mainstream Hollywood movies to actually be set in Toronto.

CONS The overall story of rival pizza shops right beside each other, and Romeo and Juliet similarities was kind of ridiculous. As were the scenes involving a soccer game, marijuana in pizza, and a pizza bake off competition.

Hayden Christenson was too old vs. Emma Roberts, he spoke with a weird Italian accent sometimes.

Hayden Christenson getting sexually assaulted by a female police officer is played for laughs in a weird reverse #MeToo moment.

Too much blatant product placement (Air Canada and Starbucks).

Lots of Rom Com clichés, like ending with the airport scene where everyone has to publically declare their love for each other.

Could this movie be more silly? The characters are the most stereotypical ethnicities possible, everyone's accent keeps changing, the story, if you can call is that, is complete formula, been done 1000x before. I was ready to turn it off in the first 2 mins after seeing the sound stage scenery and the attempt to make the 1990's look like 1940's Little Italy. Why this is set in Canada I have no idea.

Really Bad . The worst movie I have seen this year so far . I am Italian its a painful movie to watch mostly because it reminds me of The Jersey Shore owned pizzerias.

If it wasn't for Emma, this movie totally have the characteristics of crap Bollywood movies.. Everything is so predictable from the start. characters trying very hard to make it feels like Italian and it is very noticeable.