The fact that it's not a very good spoof is beside the point. It tries, and for its first thirty minutes or so it succeeds.
Finally, there's Richard Dimitri as the head of a competing gang. His claim to fame is a penchant for badly mispronouncing words, his only gimmick but one that makes his character memorable. "Saya your prayers, icehole," he tells Dundee at the beginning of the film. Later, when Dundee survives his attempts to shoot him and the gangs are at each other's throats, he declares, "This is fargin' war!" Whether it's an intentional in-joke or not, I'm not sure, but this guy's name is printed on the sign in front of his nightclub as "Moronie," but in the closing credits he's called "Maroni." Take your pick; maybe his mispronunciations are supposed to be so bad, he can't even spell his own name right. Or maybe it was an oversight on the part of the filmmakers.
In any case, you get the idea. The jokes are largely silly, sometimes juvenile, and they come faster at the start of the movie than at the end. By the time the conclusion rolls around, we're faced with things like Johnny living at the "Gangster Arms" apartments, with his neighbors Al and Cindy Capone, Legs and Shirley Diamond, and Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl Floyd. Mrs. Capone comes over to borrow a cup of bullets. You'd think that with all the gangster stereotypes and gangster clichés that abound in the cinema, the scriptwriters could have come up with something a little more clever.
Video:
The film is presented in a standard widescreen, rendered on the disc in a 1.74:1 anamorphic ratio. It may not be the widest of wide, but it is exceptionally well delineated, with sharp, generally clean image outlines. Colors are exceptional, too, deep and natural. This is the kind of color you wish every movie had on video. The picture quality overall is reasonably clear, a little grainy in patches, a little rough in others, but with virtually no trace of line jitters, pixilation, or other digital artifacts. In all, it's a fine transfer.
Audio:
The sound is as unexceptional as the picture is good. It's in Dolby Digital stereo, to be sure, but you could hardly tell it was stereo unless you put your ear to the left and right front speakers. The stereo spread is that narrow. And forget about any activity in the surround channels. The soundtrack's dynamic response and frequency range are also ordinary, and the general audio output favors the higher octaves, making for a slightly bright, hard sound. Otherwise, the audio reproduces dialogue distinctly and renders musical lyrics clearly. Frankly, there's not a lot else for it to do, so I suppose it suffices.
Extras:
There's hardly anything in the disc's "Special Features" category to warrant attention. Mainly, there are seven pan-and-scan trailers for other Fox DVD comedy titles, a widescreen theatrical trailer for this film, and thirty-two scene selections. I was struck by the fact that there were more laughs in Fox's trailer for "There's Something About Mary" than in all of "Johnny Dangerously," perhaps an unfair comparison but definitely a moment of truth. Oh, well. English, French, and Spanish are the spoken languages on the disc; English and Spanish the subtitle choices.
Parting Shots:
Given the terrific cast involved and a territory ripe for ribbing, "Johnny Dangerously" should have been a lot funnier than it is. I mean, you can't say gangsters aren't a good subject for caricature; "Some Like It Hot" sent up the gangster genre big time a quarter of a century earlier. No, I think first the comedy writers and then the director ran out of steam early in the film and found themselves with nowhere to go. And the film doesn't just run out of laughs; it becomes positively leaden by the last half hour. Still, for those moments when it does click, it may be worth a glance; and Piscopo in particular, as I've said, is a delight. The movie has its ups and downs with a lot of flat stretches in between, making overall for a very ordinary ride.
In any case, you get the idea. The jokes are largely silly, sometimes juvenile, and they come faster at the start of the movie than at the end. By the time the conclusion rolls around, we're faced with things like Johnny living at the "Gangster Arms" apartments, with his neighbors Al and Cindy Capone, Legs and Shirley Diamond, and Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl Floyd. Mrs. Capone comes over to borrow a cup of bullets. You'd think that with all the gangster stereotypes and gangster clichés that abound in the cinema, the scriptwriters could have come up with something a little more clever.
Video:
The film is presented in a standard widescreen, rendered on the disc in a 1.74:1 anamorphic ratio. It may not be the widest of wide, but it is exceptionally well delineated, with sharp, generally clean image outlines. Colors are exceptional, too, deep and natural. This is the kind of color you wish every movie had on video. The picture quality overall is reasonably clear, a little grainy in patches, a little rough in others, but with virtually no trace of line jitters, pixilation, or other digital artifacts. In all, it's a fine transfer.
Audio:
The sound is as unexceptional as the picture is good. It's in Dolby Digital stereo, to be sure, but you could hardly tell it was stereo unless you put your ear to the left and right front speakers. The stereo spread is that narrow. And forget about any activity in the surround channels. The soundtrack's dynamic response and frequency range are also ordinary, and the general audio output favors the higher octaves, making for a slightly bright, hard sound. Otherwise, the audio reproduces dialogue distinctly and renders musical lyrics clearly. Frankly, there's not a lot else for it to do, so I suppose it suffices.
Extras:
There's hardly anything in the disc's "Special Features" category to warrant attention. Mainly, there are seven pan-and-scan trailers for other Fox DVD comedy titles, a widescreen theatrical trailer for this film, and thirty-two scene selections. I was struck by the fact that there were more laughs in Fox's trailer for "There's Something About Mary" than in all of "Johnny Dangerously," perhaps an unfair comparison but definitely a moment of truth. Oh, well. English, French, and Spanish are the spoken languages on the disc; English and Spanish the subtitle choices.
Parting Shots:
Given the terrific cast involved and a territory ripe for ribbing, "Johnny Dangerously" should have been a lot funnier than it is. I mean, you can't say gangsters aren't a good subject for caricature; "Some Like It Hot" sent up the gangster genre big time a quarter of a century earlier. No, I think first the comedy writers and then the director ran out of steam early in the film and found themselves with nowhere to go. And the film doesn't just run out of laughs; it becomes positively leaden by the last half hour. Still, for those moments when it does click, it may be worth a glance; and Piscopo in particular, as I've said, is a delight. The movie has its ups and downs with a lot of flat stretches in between, making overall for a very ordinary ride.
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[release]10408[/release]