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.
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.