Johnny Dangerously

Released: 1984
Starring: Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Maureen Stapleton, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne, Glynnis O’Connor, Dom DeLuise, Richard Dimitri, Danny DeVito, Ray Walston
Director: Amy Heckerling
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13 (UK – 15)

“Organized crime has never been this disorganized”

When a film starts out with a “Weird” Al Yankovic song, you assume something fun is about to happen. Johnny Dangerously is a goofy comedy parodying the old gangster movies of the 1930s and 1940s, mocking the conventions of those films. With a strong comedy cast and Michael Keaton as the lead character, this film gave me quite a few laughs and contained a fairly competent story.

Johnny Dangerously follows the career of the title character from his teenage years to the end of his career as a criminal. Initially, teenage Johnny is reluctant to be a criminal not wanting to disappoint his mother, but when she becomes ill and they need to pay for an operation, Johnny decides to help local mob boss, Jocko Dundee. This was intended to be a one-time thing, but Johnny’s mother seems to constantly need operations (for some fairly strange ailments). So Johnny becomes a full-time gangster, staying anonymous to the police and his family while being famous to everyone else and becoming Jocko Dundee’s right-hand man. Johnny also helps his little brother become a lawyer, but is surprised when he decides to join the District Attorney’s office to fight crime. Johnny takes over the gang after Dundee retires and has to contend with an insubordinate member of his crew, a rival boss, and his crusading brother as he takes on crime.

This movie has a pretty good range of comedy, giving the audience everything from quotable one-liners, to slapstick, to visual gags. All these comedy bits result in either a lot of eye-rolling at the absurdness of a situation or the occasional out loud laughter. There is a good amount of sexual and sophomoric humor in the film (which helped earn it one of the first PG-13 ratings), but even if those aren’t your thing, there is plenty of other humor in Johnny Dangerously. Visual gags are abound and it may take more than one viewing to catch them all. The witty dialogue is funny and can help move the plot along (however it may be a bit dry for modern audiences). This is not to say there aren’t some moments where you can see a joke, but it isn’t funny. There are also plenty of those poor moments too. In the humor department, Johnny Dangerously may not rank up there with Airplane!, but you can still get a few good laughs from it.

Michael Keaton’s depiction of a 1930s gangster seems to be heavily inspired by James Cagney, borrowing movements, and his accent. Even if it is a poor imitation, it fits in well enough for the quality of the film. Marilu Henner as Johnny’s love interest, Lil Sheridan, starts off as a strong character who rebukes Johnny’s advances, but that changes quickly and she suddenly becomes cut and paste girlfriend who wants to be a wife. The rest of the supporting cast includes Peter Boyle, Joe Piscopo, Danny Devito, Griffin Dunne, Glynnis O’Connor and a small part for Dom DeLuise. They all do a great job as their respective characters.

I have to mention a particular character Roman Maroni (Richard Dimitri; ). This is the rival mob boss that continuously battles both Dundee and Dangerously. I mention this character for his ambiguous nationality and his strange way of cursing (“You fargin sneaky bastich!”) which is so memorable it becomes something that fans of this film seem to use to identify themselves to each other. Simply introduce the cursing method into a discussion with a group of movie watchers and you will know right away who has seen Johnny Dangerously.

I spoke of the opening song by “Weird” Al, but there is also a song sung by Marilu Henner, and the credits song “Let’s Misbehave”, these with the incidental and background music for the film help develop the atmosphere as they fit both the comedy and the time period of the film. You don’t have more modern sounding music pulling out of the setting of the film (even though there are some jokes that reference things that didn’t occur during the 1930s). So the soundtrack for Johnny Dangerously was pretty well chosen/composed for the film.

Viewing this on the 2002 DVD release, there is not much there besides the film. Language selection (labeled as “Fargin Language”), the film’s trailer, and other films’ trailers are all you get in this version. The quality of the film is decent for DVD and with no C.G.I, that is really all you need. There was a newer release in 2003, but I don’t think anything was changed besides the cover art (which is better on the 2002 release).

While this may not be a legendary comedy, it still delivers some laughs, one-liners, and memorable characters. So holster your .88 magnum, sit down in the comfort of your couch, enjoy the film, and save me some popcorn!

Rating:

Jack Savage:

A fun, if goofy comedy that is good for fans of the old mobster movies. Solid performances by the actors and while the jokes can be a little hit or miss, I think it should be seen at least once. Once!

 

 

Fool on the Hill:

I’m usually a fan of silly 80’s flicks, but I just couldn’t get into this one! I felt that there were so many visual gags and so much over-the-top corny dialogue that it was disingenuous. I had no connection to the plot or the characters and I feel it lacked the charm that similar movies in that genre had. At first, I was reminded of the Naked Gun films and many of Mel Brooks’ works, but this movie almost felt like a generic copy – a last-minute investment into a popular film movement. It just fell too short to keep me entertained. I’m not a huge fan of mobster movies, nor could I truly appreciate the ongoing parody of James Cagney, but I can see the appeal for others, especially for big fans of Michael Keaton, Peter Boyle, and even Danny DeVito. I give it two popcorns – this movie just wasn’t for me!

Trailer:

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