This has to be the worst film Steve Martin has ever made. He is utterly unbelievable as both an Italian-American and a wiseguy that all other elements in the film which are not bad, just average, gets totally washed out to sea.
It's amazing that Martin's character is based on the same man as Ray Liotta would later immortalize in Martin Scorsese's most brilliant film. His co-star, Rick Moranis, plays just about the same character as in "Honey, I shrunk the kids" and its sequels, so that is not really interesting to watch either but I would rather see a whole movie with that character again and the rather lame love story between him and Joan Cusack than spend it watching Martin squint and squirm his way through every stereotypical mannerism we associate with Wise's.
To be fair, I have never really seen a non-Italian-American give a good performance playing an Italian-American, except Marlon Brando and maybe I am being a little cruel to Martin but he is no Brando. Parodies of Wise's got tired after Brando which essentially was some kind of parody on it's own.
It's amazing that Martin's character is based on the same man as Ray Liotta would later immortalize in Martin Scorsese's most brilliant film. His co-star, Rick Moranis, plays just about the same character as in "Honey, I shrunk the kids" and its sequels, so that is not really interesting to watch either but I would rather see a whole movie with that character again and the rather lame love story between him and Joan Cusack than spend it watching Martin squint and squirm his way through every stereotypical mannerism we associate with Wise's.
To be fair, I have never really seen a non-Italian-American give a good performance playing an Italian-American, except Marlon Brando and maybe I am being a little cruel to Martin but he is no Brando. Parodies of Wise's got tired after Brando which essentially was some kind of parody on it's own.