namashi_1 John Huston's 'Prizzi's Honor' is A Memorable Film with Solid Performances! Its a throughly entertaining film! 'Prizzi's Honor' tells the story of a mob hit man & hit woman who fall in love, even though they have been hired to kill each other. 'Prizzi's Honor' is well-paced, funny, engaging & memorable. Richard Condon & Janet Roach's Screenplay is throughly entertaining & offers terrific moments. John Huston's Direction is of high standards. Cinematography, Editing & Costume Design, are superb.Performance-Wise: Acting God Jack Nicholson is astonishing, once again. He plays the twisted protagonist impeccably. Kathleen Turner is extremely witty & unpredictable in her portrayal, while Anjelica Huston's Oscar-Winning turn is simply brilliant. William Hickey is outstanding, what a performance! Robert Loggia is in form. John Randolph deserves a special mention.On the whole, 'Prizzi's Honor' is definitely worth watching. Go For Some Vintage Entertainment!

lasttimeisaw To watch any film includes Jack Nicholson's sex scenes on screen literally makes me squirm, and at age of 49 in this film, he and his love-at-first-sight object Kathleen Turner's shagging is so self-consciously clumsy (Ms. Turner basically is off-scene), despite of being graphically implicit. Physically speaking, he has never aged well, and technically the eye-broccoli might suit well with a comical tone of this Godfather parody. Directed by John Huston (his penultimate work before THE DEAD 1987) and earned Anjelica Huston an Oscar for BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, the film has its dated setbacks, as a BEST PICTURE nominee, it is bizarrely mediocre. Supposedly Mr. Houston aspired to stew a Mafia burlesque, but the scarcity of comedic fodder stunts the intention and after 27 years, which bears out to be an inadequate oddball. Anyway, the film proffers a fitful performance treat, Anjelica's win sounds like a moot point to me since her flare only glistens for basically two scenes (viciously confronting her father and schemingly seeking help from her grandfather), but her costumes should be merited for her compulsive appealing. Another two nominees are Jack Nicholson and William Hickey, the latter is plain worthy (a steadfast panache exuding from an ailing but slick godfather) while the former is less impressive to say nothing of Nicholson's a dozen of other virtuoso acting prowess. The leading lady Kathleen Turner is on the other hand, a bona fide underachiever, both as a wife and a professional killer, and a mawkish affection is such a pain to watch. So, Alex North's arrangements of Gioachino Rossini's music is an utter saving grace (namely, Il Barbierie di Siviglia), and the film actually is more pleasant to ears if one can erase its incongruous scenario and an awfully lame denouement.

Steffi_P In the 1970s the honourable mafia family was the stuff of sophisticated drama, so it only follows that in the 1980s it would be fair game for a spoof. Prizzi's Honor actually features a fairly serious and workable plot, a Machiavellian tale of revenge and double-cross, and looks like it may have begun life at one point as a straight crime pictures. However rather than rehashing a bunch of clichés it takes the tack of sending up that world of casual violence, unshakeable loyalty and half-mumbled Italian accents.Yes, the basic approach here is to reel out the sillier aspects of the mafia movie and make them sillier still. Jack Nicholson reprises his post-lobotomy face from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and throws in a few Brando-esque grunts and bits of business. It's not among his best comedic roles. William Hickey is actually quite subtle and nuanced as the stereotypical elderly Don, but the performance is just too much of a caricature for anything outside complete farce, which this isn't. Prizzi's Honor does however contain some very fine non-comedy performances. Anjelica Huston stands out in her smooth and confident portrayal of the manipulative outcast daughter. She really dominates the screen without ever once exaggerating or using some trite gesture. Kathleen Turner is very good too. Watch her eyes in the scene where she and Nicholson have their first drink together – she's not listening to him, she's eyeing him up.Director John Huston was a veteran of the classic era, now in the twilight of his career. In Prizzi's Honor he displays the professionalism of his generation and the uncomplicated, unostentatious approach of an older man, as well as the various tricks that he had been using to make great pictures since the 1940s. He knows exactly how little input is really needed from the camera, letting the action play out in some very long takes, shifting our focus by smoothly dollying in. Sometimes, rather than changing angle or moving in he will have the actor do the work. For example, there is a scene with John Randolph on the phone, sitting back in his chair, but at a key moment in the dialogue he leans forward, effectively putting himself into close-up without the camera moving an inch. His detachment from the action can be sublimely elegant, such as the garage door slowly coming down for a killing to take place offscreen. Huston was never known as much of a comedy director, and as I've hinted the cod-Sicilian business isn't that funny, but he works in a handful of nice sight gags such as a trio of rudeboys all handcuffed together in a row.The trouble is, Prizzi's Honor is a dreadful mediocrity, and it's not just the hit-and-miss comedy that is to blame. True, the plot is strong enough to have been done without the spoofing, but to be fair the mobster archetypes are so familiar it would be hard to do it any other way without seeming corny. The real problem is that it simply doesn't have enough meat to its bones. There are some decent characters, and their machinations certainly make for a good story, but there just aren't the great, memorable set-pieces or crackling dialogue to make the whole thing rattle along as any decent crime drama should, comical or otherwise. It's a shame. With the amount of talent available here this is a wasted opportunity.

Michael Neumann This tongue-in-cheek fairy tale of true love between hired assassins is more demanding than it should have been, almost certainly requiring a second viewing just to unravel Richard Condon's convoluted plot. Jack Nicholson portrays a dim-witted pet hit man for the Prizzi crime family; his rival/paramour is Kathleen Turner, and the scenario demands a heroic suspension of disbelief to accept either star in their role. Both were obviously chosen for their marquee appeal, but it's the supporting cast that makes the film worthwhile, including William Hickey as the frail Prizzi patriarch and Angelica Huston as his scheming granddaughter (the former earned an Oscar nomination; the latter won the award). Director John Huston, for all his acknowledged talents, shows no special gift here for black comedy, and the cold-blooded conclusion may leave viewers with a bitter aftertaste.