Being half Italian, there's a certain morbid pride in seeing my Italian people in movies portrayed as bad ass gangsters. I know it's wrong to kill people, and I know that the mafia is filled with criminals, but if you were to go by their portrayal in movies, it DOES seem like it would be pretty cool to be a mob guy. "The Godfather" and "GoodFellas" are great movies, but it can't be denied that they sorta glamorize the Mafia lifestyle. No matter. They're just movies, ya know? Recently, there have been some gangster comedies being cranked outta Hollywood. Last year, it was the terrible "Mafia," and HBO has a hit series with their highly-acclaimed show, "The Sopranos" (I've never seen it, but I hear great things about it). A few months ago, "Analyze This" came out, and I thought it was really good. Now it's "Mickey Blue Eyes," a movie that has some really funny moments, but was more concept and potential than actual substance... but I DID laugh quite a few times.
Hugh Grant, James Caan, Jeanne Tripplehorn (absolutely adorable here), Burt Young (VERY effective, as well as horrifying, as the mob boss), and Joe Viterelli (he was Robert De Niro's right-hand man in "Analyze This") were all really good. The cast is just great.
I'm not sure why it happened, but there are three directors for this movie. The "main" one (and the only one credited) is Kelly Makin (he directed lotsa episodes of "The Kids in the Hall," as well as the feature film, "The Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy"). Then there are two other directors, both uncredited. As far as I know, they each did "additional scenes." One was Carl Gottlieb (he directed a movie I love from years ago called "Caveman"... that's right, the one with Ringo Starr). The other director is, believe it or not, Hugh Grant. Interesting, eh? As for the script, it was written by Adam Scheinman ("Little Big League") and Robert Kuhn (never heard of him). Also, there was an uncredited rewrite by Marc Lawrence (another guy I never heard of).
I liked this
movie. It was entertaining and it made me laugh, but it coulda been so much
more. Also, the ending was too... I dunno, it was too simple. Too obvious.
Still, what's most important is that I was entertained and I laughed. So
there.