gavin6942
Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo) are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.This film is a bit of an enigma in Brian De Palma's career, not fitting in with the themes or style he is known for. In fact, I would have expected something like this to come from Billy Wilder before De Palma, but yet it exists.I do have to say I loved the roles filled by Lou Albano and Harvey Keitel. I mean, wow, despite a relatively weak film, Keitel still brings his A game.Roger Ebert wrote, "Wise Guys is an abundant movie, filled with ideas and gags and great characters. It never runs dry." Apparently this enthusiasm has "run dry" since its release, as now the film is largely forgotten and Rotten Tomatoes gives it a poor 33%. Personally, I thought it was just average.
Nick Drew
Director Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables) seemed to have really missed the mark with this unsuccessful attempt at what could only be interpreted as a morbidly dark comedy, but I'm still not sure "comedy" is among the words I am looking for to describe this outing.This movie kicks off with some fun animated cartoon credits, which would have you initially believe this to be something good-natured, with some clever lighthearted Mobster capers to proceed. But then when the movie actually begins, the wolf takes no time to reveal itself from its sheep's clothing, and proceeds to claw at the viewers resiliency to tolerate ill humour such as this.Both leads - Devito and Piscopo, both give enthusiastic energised performances, but it is all for nil, as they don't have anything targetable to work for generating funny moments. The script here is by and large just one exasperating concoctions of sleaze and bad taste humour which, in my opinion, was no fun at all to watch in action. And unfortunately on the other hand, the more visual-based attempts at humour don't really come off well either, as they are constructed without any light touch and hammered home in such a deliberated fashion, ultimately resulting in predictability.As this movie makes some winks at Taxi Driver, I would say it is fair to admit that Wise Guys as a comedy was about as funny as that movie. I approached this with hopes of a fun Mobster movie, but in the end find it difficult to think of any redeeming aspects about this fiasco. Skip it.
smmans
DeVito (Harry) and Piscopo (Moe) are a great team. Both of them play their parts to perfection and Piscopo (in the funeral/suicide attempt scene) even sells his extreme grief without even saying a word. I think he is highly underrated as an actor. DeVito plays the well intentioned snake oil salesman to a T. Every idea he has goes wrong in his quest for "respectability", and he drags Moe down with him in every endeavor. But their loyalty to each other keeps them going.This movie is funny from the get go and even tosses in the tear-jerking twist that throws you for a complete loop. Lou Albano is perfectly cast as Frank "the Fixer" Acovano. He's a major highlight of the movie. It's well written, acted, and just a very funny film. If you haven't seen it you should rent it ASAP.
Coventry
between two very serious and successful gangster movies ( Scarface and The Untouchable ), DePalma shot another crime epic called in the 80's called Wise Guys. Well, he changed one's tack here completely. Wise Guys may handle about emotionless gangsters and vengeful extorts, it is in fact a wacky comedy and a light-hearted spoof towards the genre that DePalma loves so much himself. All the stereotypical mob-characters are there and all the gangster-clichés are being mocked (the scene where DeVito has to start the big Boss ' car while everybody is waiting for the possible bomb to explode is hilarious). DeVito and Piscopo are still only errand-boys for the Newark mafia and they're sick of their jobs. They want to do a little double-cross on the mob but they fail completely and have to run for their lives. That is more or less the plot of Wise Guys but there are enough extra twists and surprises added to this to give you a very good time...a great ending included. Of course, it doesn't come close to the other gangster-epics DePalma shot do to its playful character. But I guess DePalma and the complete cast was aware of that as well. In general, a nice change and fun to watch...the only irritating aspect from time to time is DeVito's overacting!
AD
