wise guys ( 1986 film )
wise guys - auf dem höhepunkt am ende | doku wdr tag7, 05. 10. 17
wise guys
is broad and farcical, but there' s not a moment when moe and harry stop being lovable, or even believable .
the box title was in polish not english like the photo shown but the film is in english. brilliant, funny film
metro - goldwyn - mayer (mgm) (1986) (united states) (theatrical) (as mgm entertainment co. )
wise guys
tells the story of harry and moe, two low - level hoodlums who become the toys of the mafia gods. they' re just ordinary guys, working stiffs who live next door to each other in houses tucked under a new jersey expressway .
hollywood also has done more than its fair share. here are eight deceased wise guys with las vegas ties who were portrayed in films either as themselves or as characters inspired by them .
a big nostalgic film. absolutely brilliant comedy. danny devito really makes this film a scream. arrived prompt and secure.' who farted?' hahaha
nice comedy. not the best de palma film, but i liked it .
urltoken is led by a team of seasoned business pros who have many years of combined experience with funeral home and cemetery operations, as well as in - depth experience in other service industries. meet the wise guys
this gangster comedy was released during a cycle of hollywood movies during the 1980s that sent up gangster films. these movies included: prizzi' s honor (1985), wise guys (1986), harlem nights (1989), city heat (1984), johnny dangerously (1984), little miss marker (1980), and dead men don' t wear plaid (1982) .
goodfellas (stylized as goodfellas) is a 1990 american crime film directed by martin scorsese. it is an adaptation of the 1986 non - fiction book wiseguy by nicholas pileggi, who co - wrote the screenplay with scorsese. the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate henry hill and his friends and family over a period from 1955 to 1980 .
to some degree, the manic comedy of de palma’s earlier works (hi, mom! , the wedding party) never really manifested itself in his bigger - budget output. if one considers wise guys and the bonfire of the vanities the two closest examples of de palma doing comedy at a studio level, the results speak for themselves. that said, the sheer scope and ambition of vanities elevates that film above the middling atmosphere in which this film lives .
when i decided to collect and purchase all thebrian de palma films i discovered one i had never heard of before (well more than one but still). it was called wise guys and it stared the great danny de vito and the very underrated joe piscopo. i think saying i was excited to watch it was an understatement when it came to this film .
the film was never shown theatrically in the uk when first released, and went straight to video .
okay, imagine if someone mixed a great film with atrocious humor, atrocious writing, atrocious camerawork, atrocious direction, and fully lazy film that clearly nobody worked on. mix all of that with billy wilder' s film noir masterpiece double indemnity (1944). then have the director not be able to finish the film, so let the actor choose a legendary director he' s frequently worked with to finish it up .
thank you ron for such an absorbing commentary which has escaped the awareness, understanding and the proper perspective for responding to the roots of the holocaust. absolutely stunning. i have to read more of the wise guys, and i also agree with dave. your thinking needs a larger audience .
with a budget of $ 100 million, it was and still is the most expensive project brian de palma has tackled. it’s also the only straight - up piece of science fiction among his filmography, as well as a relatively wholesome, pg - rated affair – a rarity for this most salacious of mainstream american filmmakers. originally to be directed by gore verbinski (fresh off his debut, mousehunt), it remains one of the true outliers in de palma’s oeuvre; you’d have to go back to 1986’s wise guys to single out a film that delivered less of what one had come to expect from the director .
what was in the water in 1986! typically serious auteurs were getting down right whimsical - cassavetes with
big trouble
, de palma with
wise guys
, polanski with
pirates
, john carpenter with
big trouble in little china
and francis ford coppola with
peggy sue got married
. it' s like abrahams, zucker & zucker directing
au hasard balthazar
. in most cases i imagine there wasn' t too much laughter during the counting of the box office receipts .
it’s also important to note that wise guys opened (along with the cult hit body double) between two of de palma’s most commercially successful movies: scarface and the untouchables. both are playful and playfully violent; wise guys is never much of either. punches are being pulled, safe decisions being made. clever mafioso subversions (moe and harry sometimes have to turn their bosses’ cars on, just in case it’s wired to explode), an easy chemistry between the leads and an impressive supporting cast, including patti lupone and a scene - chewing harvey keitel, never elevate an aggressively straightforward narrative .
it' s tempting to dismiss
wise guys
as a pointless, ill - advised forebear to
dumb and dumber .
but even if only for an act, you sense de palma striving for more artful zaniness a la the marx brothers or a grimmer side of the ealing comedy spectrum .
made on a budget of $ 25 million, goodfellas grossed $ 46. 8 million. it received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for six academy awards, including best picture and best director, with pesci winning best actor in a supporting role. the film won five awards from the british academy of film and television arts, including best film and best director. additionally, goodfellas was named the year' s best film by various critics' groups .
in 1999, devito produced and co - starred in man on the moon, a film about the unusual life of his former taxi co - star, andy kaufman, who was played in the film by jim carrey. devito also produced the comedy central series reno 911! , as well as the film spin off reno 911! : miami .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
there were other filmmakers that inspired me, who showed me how to work with the film form in the way in which they executed a scene or accomplished a shot. but it was kubrick that showed me how the film worked as a whole .
an offbeat, episodic film about three friends, paul, a shy love - seeker, lloyd, a vibrant conspiracy nut, and jon, an aspiring filmmaker and peeping tom. the film satirizes free - love, the... see full summary »
in 2012, devito was in the animated film the lorax, as the lorax, the tree - loving guardian of the forest .
there may be an explanation for the lack of creativity and verve here. speaking with fandango a few years back, de palma briefly touched on the difficulties of making the film: “…take a movie like wise guys. it’s not one of my favorites because nobody at the studio ever liked it. it was given a go by one administration and they left, and then another administration came in. it was a bastard child that no one wanted anything to do with, so that was not a pleasant experience. but i liked working with danny devito so much that we managed to soldier through it. ” he doubled down on the take in an interview with business insider earlier this year: “now a movie i wish i hadn’t done was wise guys … i should have just taken my money and walked instead of dealing with a studio that didn’t want to make the movie. ”
wise guys
is an abundant movie, filled with ideas and gags and great characters. it never runs dry. it never has the desperation of so many gangster comedies, which seem to be marching over the same tired ground. this movie was made with joy, and you can feel it in the sense of all the actors working at the top of their form .
wise guys is not owned by me nor do i have the rights to display it. however, i am not truly breaking copyrightinfringement laws with the short segment here. this is hilarious - this is the scene that shows what the lowest men on the mafia totem pole go through and what their jobs are. the jacket scene is funny, but the car scene guarantees that you will lyao! enjoy !
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
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the death of kubrick came as a shock to me. his legacy — the twelve films that he created (including the forthcoming eyes wide shut) — impacted me personally and made me see film in a completely different way. in 1987, i saw my first kubrick film, full metal jacket, and discovered that film was more than just a medium that entertained. as i became engrossed with the moral disintegration of private gomer pyle, as i watched raw recruits turn into seasoned veterans without remorse or morality, i realized that film had the ability to transcend mere storytelling and become an unforgettable visceral and visual experience .
is this brian de palma ’s only dull film? very possibly yes. released in 1986, this post - snl joe piscopo vehicle (you read that correctly) feels incredibly standard. the plot concerns two low - level gangsters, moe and harry (piscopo and danny devito, respectively), who lose their mob boss’ money at the race track. said mob boss (dan hedaya) orders the two schlubs to kill each other. hijinks ensue .
did somebody decide this was going to be a good year for comedies? first there was
hannah and her sisters ,
and then
down and out in beverly hills ,
and then
off beat
and now
wise guys .
all four movies know the same secret: laughter doesn' t come out of formula, or stupidity, or the manipulation of things that worked in other films .
in addition to his taxi work, devito voiced herb powell, homer simpson' s half - brother, on two episodes of the simpsons. in 1996, he provided the voice of mister swackhammer in the looney tunes film space jam. in 1997, he was the voice of the satyr philoctetes in the film hercules
in many ways, wise guys is the “bastard child” of de palma’s career — a lazy piece of work from a director who is anything but. even with his trademark split - diopter popping up a couple of times — most notably during the finale in the casino — the filmmaker feels markedly absent from the proceedings. auteurs, by nature, make their unique mark on everything they touch. de palma’s mark does not get any lighter than this .
wwe manager paul heyman used to be called
paul e. dangerously
earlier in his career, because of his resemblance to michael keaton' s character in this film .
scorsese initially titled the film wise guy and postponed making it; later, he and pileggi changed the title to goodfellas. to prepare for their roles in the film, robert de niro, joe pesci, and ray liotta often spoke with pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book. according to pesci, improvisation and ad - libbing came out of rehearsals wherein scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. the director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked best and put them into a revised script, which the cast worked from during principal photography .
much of the amusement of'' wise guys,'' which opens today at loews state and other theaters, comes from the assembled characters. as a good bad guy named bobby dilea, harvey keitel gives a delicious impersonation of robert de niro. harry has a young son who preens and struts like his dad, who he thinks is a tough guy.'' you should be putting guys like me in jail,'' harry tells him. moe' s mother laments that she' s the only member of the new jersey hadassah who lists her son' s profession as'' hoodlum.'' there are enough italo - judeo family - and - food gags here to keep that restaurant in business indefinitely .
the thing about wise guys is that itâ€™s actually not that bad at all. since de palma is the heir to hitchcock, itâ€™s only fair that you relate this to mr. and mrs. smith. it just shows that he can do anything. heâ€™s not just a suspense storyteller, he can also show off his literal sense of humor. danny devito is hilarious and there is also a very funny performance by harvey keitel. itâ€™s not amazing, but probably better than most people give it credit for .
there are certain questions in life than will never be satisfactorily answered. is there life after death? can we square the circle? and how the hell could a director of brian de palma' s caliber ever produce something so preposterous as
wise guys
? it' s pretty hard to find words to describe how awful this
comedy
is .
schindler' s list
is a veritable laugh riot compared to this travesty. our two
heroes
are some of the most imbecilic and annoying characters ever…
the film producers learned that danny devito might not make his shooting dates, because he was still shooting romancing the stone (1984) in mexico, and barely made it to the set in time .
now, one should not discount time as a factor. in the mid - 80s, a buddy comedy about two losers assigned to kill each other almost certainly was a fresher, more bankable concept than it is today. upon release, wise guys wasn’t wholly dismissed, receiving positive notices from the likes of the new york times and roger ebert, and, for whatever it’s worth, screenwriter george gallo would follow this picture with midnight run, a near - perfect on - the - run buddy comedy that’s only shined brighter with time .
two not - so - bright guys (an italian - american and a jew) are doing errands for a big - shot newark mafia boss. one day they see a chance to rip off their boss but instead they lose 250 thousand dollars and find themselves on the run .
in the scene where tommy (griffin dunne) is in the hospital room in a full body cast, the hospital loudspeaker pages for
dr. michael hertzberg
. michael hertzberg is one of the film' s producers .
nevertheless, in the ensuing years wiesel began speaking out on behalf of human rights causes around the world, receiving the congressional gold medal in 1985 and nobel peace prize in 1986. the ushmm award, established in 2011 and renamed the elie wiesel award, is the museum’s highest honor that is bestowed upon “internationally prominent individuals whose actions have advanced the museum’s vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. ”
many critics didn' t seem to understand that wise guys was just supposed to be exactly the movie that they got. brian de palma' s career had become so defined by everything this movie is not, but the movie was not a mid - career faux pas. it was not trying to be the king of comedy. he was not striving for a more artistically sophisticated brand of zaniness. it was an example of his endurance and measure as a hollywood filmmaker. it may have been a troubled production, but it was cast just right and it' s got the pace of a meadowlands thoroughbred .
they dream of the day when they' ll be assigned to really important jobs, like shaking down widows. but when the godfather holds his morning staff meetings in the back booth of his favorite restaurant, these guys get humiliated: their job is to pick up the boss' s laundry .
the
film yearbook volume 4
said that this movie was a
parody burlesque of warner brothers gangster films
. this movie, ironically though, wasn' t made at warner brothers, it was made at 20th century fox .
keith gordon is a creative young man who films the oddball doings of his family and peers .
the maestro
appears frequently to give him pointers on his techniques. it' s almost a film about... see full summary »
the rival crime boss in this film is named maroni, a named shared by a major crime boss in the batman universe. michael keaton appeared on - screen as the caped crusader in batman (1989) and batman returns (1992) .
big trouble is to cassavetes what wise guys is to de palma. both are films from two of our greatest filmmakers that were met with a widely negative reception at the time of their release. it' s understandable to a point, but there' s something so appealing about watching these typical eighties' screenplays put to screen by such talented filmmakers. neither film particularly has that great of a script, but each ensemble brings a level of such remarkable talent when approaching both the physical comedy, along with fully embracing the outlandish nature of the material. maneuvering around the boundaries that making a studio comedy in the 1980s entailed, it' s remarkable how much of cassavetes' distinct directorial style is able to work its way in here. with certain nighttime scenes in this emulating the same visual capability that the car accident that came early on in opening night displayed, it' s hard for me not to love big trouble .
devito has become a major film and television producer. through jersey films, he has produced many films, including pulp fiction, get shorty, erin brockovich (for which he received an academy award nomination for best picture), gattaca, and garden state .
with kubrick now gone, i wonder if film will ever be the same. he was a dostoevsky, a melville and a tolstoy all rolled up in one. he was an uncompromising giant unafraid to tackle controversial issues and explore the human condition through his unique vision .
i guess a more comedic remake of double indemnity directed by john cassavetes doesn' t sound like the worst idea but this film is pretty terrible. it' s immediately apparent that cass wasn' t involved with the script and that the producers heavily influenced the shooting and editing. you would never guess that this was a cassavetes film as it lacks any of the director' s trademarks. visually it looks flat and televisual, the script is bland and terribly unfunny and the characters are wooden and entirely unremarkable. peter falk' s performance was okay but other than that it definitely felt as if the actors were mostly phoning it in on this one. big trouble is rightly considered the director' s weakest film and he himself regarded the movie as a failure. only watch this if you are a cassavetes completist .
another unique event also took place at night. in 1986, my good friend, swing shift worker jay johnson, was in my office, arranging tv games on the satellite control panel to show out in the sportsbook. all of the sudden, the whole place erupted, howling, laughter. jay found two elephants going at it on national geographic and put them on the huge screen for the race and sportsbook to see. d’wayne mauldin, his supervisor, broke the twenty - yard dash record getting back there to take them down .
to be fair, kubrick was frequently tough on his actors. in a clockwork orange, he kept malcolm mcdowell’s eyes open to that horrible metal device for nearly twelve hours straight. he shot a relentless number of takes for nearly every shot, 47 takes for a simple shot of scatman crothers crossing the street in the shining. he took years upon years to create a film just to get it right. but his talent was so enormous, so all - encompassing, so vast, so true to the film form, that somehow all the horror stories seemed justified .
in 1977, devito played the role of john' john john the apple' deappoliso in the starsky and hutch episode titled
the collector
. in 1986, devito directed and starred in an episode of steven spielberg' s amazing stories. in the black comedy episode from season two, titled
the wedding ring
, devito acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by his real - life wife, actress rhea perlman). when the ring is slipped on his wife' s finger, she becomes possessed by the ring' s former owner, a murderous black widow .
i was taking a break from letterboxd for awhile... . then i watched american sniper... . and felt i needed to review it... . but i had 36 movies watched that needed to be reviewed first... . well thank goodness... wise guys is the 36th and final review cranked out in a 16 hour time span. this brian depalma comedy (yes he made one) has not aged very well. the first time i saw the movie i thought it was pretty funny... this time around i was trying to figure out which parts i thought were funny the first time around. danny devito and joe piscopo (what happened to his career ?) play best friends that are low end gangsters. after a mistake they are put in a position that requires…
indeed, the initial critical reception (cahiers nonwithstanding) seems perplexingly harsh for a film whose greatest offense is steadfast corniness; to these eyes, only in jerry o’connell’s exasperating “comic relief” is where it crosses a line. meanwhile, the references to 2001 ingeniously and cheekily reinforce the film it isn’t – the centrifuge - as - hamster - wheel sequence is riffed on for a joyous diegetic dance set to van halen’s “dance the night away, ” while kubrick’s monolith is evoked in the final act as a horizontal rectangle of black against a white backdrop, conversely revealed to be a welcoming entrance into a space where peaceful alien contact is made .
it' s here that the movie really gets rolling. the two guys hit the road, looking for safety, looking for a mob elder statesman who can bargain for their safety. and we begin to realize that the movie is filled with an inexhaustible supply of great character actors, that we are going to meet a lot of people in this story, and they are all going to be memorable .
profound, excellent article, ron. (no offense to wise guys, but i think you should take it further, to something like the new yorker, atlantic, or to a scholarly journal in in history, culture, or holocaust studies for a wider readership). i was especially taken by your personal reflections as son of a holocaust survivor. and there is so much to be gleaned historically from reading it, especially the fact that the significant fact of jewish victimization specifically was slow to emerge post - ww2 and that the eichmann trial became something of a catalyst for the historiographical designation of the jewish holocaust. i also appreciate your indicating that very great man though he was, ellie wiesel stopped short of an embrace of the theme of palestinian suffering and rights. your article really is the full package. please seek to share it more widely .
goodfellas has been called one of the greatest films in the crime genre. in 2000, it was deemed
culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant
and selected for preservation in the national film registry by the united states library of congress. its content and style have been emulated in numerous other films and television shows .
i loved this film when i was younger, but haven' t seen it in years. it' s so nice to see it holds up. this is a great little comedy with fun performances, and though there are no huge guffaws, it' s a very enjoyable watch. and it' s hilarious that one of the standout roles is from captain lou albano !
on paper, it seems a blatant ill fit for his sensibility, but circumvention and misdirection have always been elements of that sensibility. it opens with one of his trademark bait - and - switches, in which an illusion is quickly revealed for what it is: a blue sky, with an off - screen voice counting down to lift - off, then a rocket shooting straight up, only moments later revealed to be a sky - rocket launched in celebration of the upcoming mission. this is immediately followed by another of his trademarks: without a cut, we switch to a roving steadicam tracking shot that drifts and whips through a backyard barbecue, introducing the film’s main players in a single, fluid take and establishing the film’s ultimately jovial, communal atmosphere .
nicknamed
tony the ant ,
spilotro was the chicago mob' s enforcer in las vegas for much of the 1970s and early 1980s until he and brother michael were beaten to death in an indiana cornfield in 1986. depicted as character nicky santoro by actor joe pesci in the 1995 movie
casino ,
spilotro initially ran a circus circus gift shop. he later led a burglary ring known as the
hole in the wall gang ,
noteworthy because it represented the spread of mob activity beyond las vegas casinos. spilotro, who was kept out of prison by attorney and future las vegas mayor oscar goodman, also was linked to numerous murders, casino skimming and loan sharking and was banned from nevada casinos from 1978 until his death at age 48 .
the two friends are played by joe piscopo, as moe dickstein, and danny devito, as harry valentini. they move with easy familiarity through the world of the mob; sometimes the little guys get the best view. they know all about the system of enforcement and discipline and punishment. they know so much, in fact, that when they screw up, when they do something that is very, very bad, they don' t even have to be told they' re dead. it goes without saying .
i soon found myself renting every kubrick film i could get my hands on, and became captivated with every frame, every character, and every painstakingly crafted allegorical touch that kubrick embellished his films with. the giddy lunacy of dr. strangelove, the evolutionary epic of 2001: a space odyssey, and the moral philosophizing of a clockwork orange. i was amazed that the man could move seamlessly from one genre to another .
also, as an aside, there are a few more scorsese connections in this than the average film (it begins with a parody of a scene from' taxi driver', is shot by the dp of' the king of comedy', and features scorsese' s parents in one scene). these are admittedly very thin connections, and i don' t think they mean anything, but they are slightly interesting to note .
“uncompromising. meticulous. control freak. reclusive. these were all words that were attached to stanley kubrick throughout his life. but they were also words that described a man who changed the rules of filmmaking. kubrick merged the artistic film with the commercial, melding his stark independent vision with the coffers of hollywood in a way that no other filmmaking genius — not even welles — has managed to accomplish and may never succeed at doing again .
i began to read books. i collected an arsenal of magazine articles and clippings and learned that he had moved to england to maintain control of his films after he had become disappointed with the way hollywood had attempted to wrestle control of spartacus away from him. through kubrick, i learned that directing a film was more than just an artistic challenge. it was, above all, a relentless battle with the people who gave you the money .
rare comedy from director brian de palma' s and his first fully directed by him since get to know your rabbit (1972). other de palma comedies are mostly from his early work, and include greetings (1968), hi, mom! (1970), the co - directed student film home movies (1979), the wedding party (1969), and the bonfire of the vanities (1990). see more »
as race results came in, a guy in the control room, located in the guts of the boardroom, announced the results to the guys on the catwalks who would open up the corresponding door and insert the results, again like fenway. to protect the customers from errors, lefty installed a movable video camera on the opposite side of the racebook, facing the boards, so the man in the control room could scan the posted results for accuracy. the racebook players had no idea what went into this process. all they saw were big, neat boards. good thing .
not de palma’s best by a long shot, the funniest thing about it is probably the fact that it is a studio comedy film directed by brian de palma (although there are some fun moments throughout). the script is not very good and i quite disliked joe piscopo, but there are a lot of instances of de palma parodying himself (the 360 degree pan shot, and the faux - split screen, among other things) which makes for an almost intriguing watch .
in spats, it plays like de palma trying out slapstick. select moments — a close - up shot that pulls out to reveal harry being drowned inside of a fish tank or moe testing out a bulletproof suit jacket for his boss — highlight the fascinating hybrid of de palma’s visual style with broad, studio comedy. if only it worked a bit more frequently throughout the film’s bloated 100 - minute runtime. one can only ponder what additional mileage the director may have achieved from devito’s deliciously terrible hairpiece, but, alas, it was not to be .
so, now it’s about 11: 00 saturday morning and they start looking outside for sarge’s cab. “hey, you see sarge yet? ” someone would see a cab. “hey, i think i see him! ”... .. “that’s an ace cab, you dummy. sarge has a yellow cab. ” eventually, when he was good and ready, sarge would pull up with cardboard boxes full of these awesome sandwiches. they went behind the sports counter for us writers to hand out. guys would be like cattle rushing up. they sweat scores all week, but while the sandwiches were in play, scores could wait. it was pick’em which sandwich was best although i made the tower’s steak the favorite .
while the movie sends up classic gangster movies in general, the basic plot point of johnny and tommy kelly ending up on opposite sides of the law is inspired by manhattan melodrama (1934). in that film, william powell and clark gable portrayed orphans who are raised together as brothers. clark gable' s character
blackie gallagher
grows up to become a gangster, while william powell' s character jim wade becomes a crusading district attorney (just like johnny and tommy, respectively). also, in both films, the gangster brother roots for the district attorney brother to succeed .
“it can be said with certainty that any reviewer who pans [ mission to mars ] does not understand movies, let alone like them, ” declared armond white in 2000. while perhaps an over - corrective to the critical drubbing the film had just received, there’s nonetheless a grain of truth in his statement. far from being a pale imitation of 2001: a space odyssey, as many reviewers accused, mission to mars actively deflates its predecessor’s misanthropy and grandeur – on one level, it’s a lavish, epic - scale lark from a director who’s often been as much a satirist as a craftsman .
scoring a sandwich was a big deal. if you got one you were one of the guys (at least till you ate it), one of churchill’s “in crowd. ” this one guy, lupo (wolf in italian), was another cab driver and like sarge never picked up a fare. his entire life was devoted to scamming people. if he had the choice of picking a fare up and making $ 20 or scamming somebody for $ 5, he’d choose the scam. lupo would start on monday, one writer at a time: “save me a sandwich, will ya? ” he would somehow always manage to get four or five then sell them. he had a route, i guess. he’d put 10 times the energy into his scams than it would have taken to pick up a fare .
daniel michael
danny
devito, jr. (born november 17, 1944) is an american actor, comedian, director, and producer. he first gained prominence for his portrayal of taxi dispatcher louie de palma on the abc and nbc television series taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a golden globe and an emmy. he went on to become a major film star, known for his roles in films such as terms of endearment, romancing the stone, twins, batman returns, get shorty, and l. a. confidential, and for his voiceover work in films such as space jam, hercules, and the lorax .
like bill & ted, thelma & louise and harry & sally, you have a film that completely hinges on the central relationship of duel leads. the problem here is that danny devito and joe piscopo are both positively insufferable to watch, and that' s just on their own. put these imbeciles in a scene together and you better believe that fireworks get set off... . right in your face. to top it off, harvey keitel, dan hedaya and a host of character actor gangster - extraordinaires get completely shafted in straight man roles to placate the treasure trove of comedy chemistry coming from devito and po. probably the most obnoxious and inessential work in de palma' s whole oeuvre .
devito co - founded jersey films with michael shamberg. soon afterwards, stacey sher became an equal partner. the production company is known for films such as pulp fiction, garden state, and freedom writers. devito also owns jersey television, which produced the comedy central series reno 911! . devito and wife rhea perlman starred together in his 1996 film matilda, based on roald dahl' s children' s novel. he currently stars as frank reynolds on the fxx sitcom it' s always sunny in philadelphia. he also directs and produces graphic short horror films for his internet venture the blood factory. he has appeared in several of them, as have friends of his and members of his family. [ 1 ]
at the nuremberg trials in germany following the war, jewish victimization was certainly acknowledged, but it was subsumed under the broader categories of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” and soon half forgotten. the word “jew” was not even mentioned in alain resnais’s otherwise brilliant 1955 documentary film night and fog. and william shirer’s the rise and fall of the third reich, a 1960 bestseller, devoted just two to three percent of its some 1, 200 pages to the jewish genocide. in this context, most americans came to view world war ii in terms of what alexander calls the “progressive narrative” of the war, the belief that the evil of nazism had been overcome and “relegated to a traumatic past whose darkness [ had been ] obliterated” in favor of a forward - looking vision of a more humane and democratic age .
the latter sequence is where the film reaches its apex of endearingly cornball mysticism, and it’s best to look beyond the even - then - antiquated cgi aliens to the implicit sight of de palma finally letting his guard down. he’s never been evidently interested in the cosmic – he’s most in his wheelhouse when delineating space and time, hence his obsession with the possibilities of split - screens and split - diopters (the latter, but not the former, makes an appearance here). accordingly, mission to mars works best, in a conventional sense, during an earlier set piece in which the rescue mission becomes endangered by oxygen leaks in the spacecraft, triggering a race against time to identify and fix them. its depiction of extra - terrestrial contact is less convincing, yet there’s something poignant about de palma surrendering to the material’s demand for uncomplicated, awestruck wonder .
better known as meyer lansky, the math and financial whiz became one of the nation' s most powerful mobsters and possessed a keen grasp of the role gambling could play in organized crime. lansky provided financial backing for the flamingo, thunderbird, el cortez and stardust hotels and was rumored to be an investor in caesars palace. lansky was portrayed in 1974 as character hyman roth by actor lee strasberg in the oscar - winning best picture
the godfather part ii ,
a role that earned strasberg an oscar nomination for best supporting actor. lansky was credited with uttering one of the most famous lines in the history of mob lore ,
we' re bigger than u. s. steel ,
which was used in the film. ben kingsley also earned an oscar nomination for best supporting actor for portraying lansky in
bugsy ,
making lansky the only mobster on this list to inspire multiple oscar - nominated performances. he died at age 80 in 1983 .
wiesel once wrote that in his worst nightmare he would wake up shivering, thinking that when he and other survivors were gone, “no one will be able to persuade people that the holocaust occurred. ” in my view, however, the most pressing question is not whether the holocaust will be remembered, but how it will be remembered. one place to start is with the observations of sociologist jeffrey alexander, who notes that “in the beginning, the holocaust was not the ‘holocaust’…. in the torrent of newspaper, radio, and magazine stories reporting the discovery…of the nazi concentration camps, the…remains of what had transpired were typified as ‘atrocities, ’ part of the general horror of war. ” the particularity of jewish victimization and the suffering of jewish survivors were opaque; and the photographic and film images that were taken by the allies presented the victims (dead and alive) as a “petrified, degrading, and smelly” depersonalized mass of misery that generated revulsion rather than compassion .
devito met actress rhea perlman on january 17, 1971, when she went to see a friend in the single performance of the play the shrinking bride, which also featured devito. [ 13 ] they moved in together two weeks after meeting. [ 14 ] the couple married on january 28, 1982. [ 15 ] they have three children: lucy chet devito (born march 11, 1983), grace fan devito (born march 1985), and jacob daniel devito (born october 1987). [ 16 ] throughout their relationship, perlman and devito have acted alongside each other several times, including in the tv show taxi and the feature film matilda [ 16 ] (in which they played matilda' s parents). devito and perlman separated in october 2012 after 30 years of marriage and over 40 years together. [ 16 ] however, in march 2013, it was reported that they had reconciled and called off the separation. [ 17 ] the family resides in beverly hills, california, and also spend time at their vacation home in interlaken, new jersey. [ 18 ]
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide - release movies, 40 for limited - release movies, 20 for tv shows), including 5 reviews from top critics .
in this comedy, a couple of bumbling gangsters, harry valentini (danny devito) and moe dickstein (joe piscopo) mess up a simple assignment, attracting the attention and wrath of their boss, anthony castelo (dan hedaya). as a punishment for their goof - up, castelo gives both harry and moe confidential instructions to knock each other off .
brian depalma, who made some funny movies years ago, seems to have lost his touch .
i know this movie doesn' t get a lot of love, but it' s got a few great gags in it. piscopo is even pretty descent .
the funnies thing this spawned was a parody by three pidgeons on a disney cartoon. very silly but i had to giggle .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
roger ebert' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th, 1994, being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
a look back at robert zemeckis' half - animated classic, who framed roger rabbit, on its 30 - year anniversary .
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
here' s what they do. they go to the track with fixer, the mob' s chief enforcer (played by captain lou albano, the gigantic professional wrestler). their assignment is to place a bet for tony, the boss (dan hedaya). devito starts thinking, which is always dangerous. the boss has been betting on the wrong horses for weeks. they could be heroes by placing the money on the nose of the horse that devito knows will win. better still, they could get rich by betting on the winning horse and then letting fixer and the boss believe the money was lost .
this is a great plan, except this is the one day the boss' s horse comes in first, and so devito and piscopo have lost the boss hundreds of thousands of dollars. this is bad. it is so bad that devito is plunged into a lobster tank at the restaurant, and piscopo is suspended over a pit full of attack dogs. then the boss thinks up their real punishment: he will secretly assign each one to kill the other .
in new jersey, there was hedeya as the boss, clean - shaven and slick, and albano as fixer, in one of the year' s great supporting roles. then, in atlantic city, we meet the casino manager, bobby dilea, played by the great harvey keitel. he doesn' t want anyone to get killed in his casino, and once harry and moe check into the penthouse suite (using the fixer' s stolen credit card), he knows he is going to have to be very lucky to keep that from happening. very lucky .
the movie was directed by brian de palma, who specializes in movies about crime, and whose credits include
scarface ,
body double
and
dressed to kill .
i admired all of those movies - indeed, i think de palma is one of the best stylists at work right now - but i wouldn' t have suspected that he had this comedy in him. his early credits include such problematic comedies as
hi, mom !
( which was one of robert de niro' s first movie jobs), but now here' s this polished, confident comedy that never seems to go wrong .
a lot of the credit goes to piscopo and devito, who develop an instant, easy camaraderie. i really did feel that they care for each other. i liked the way devito waved his arms and demanded attention, and the way piscopo played his slightly slower, sweeter, dumber pal .
devito has been good in other recent movies (such as
romancing the stone
), but this is the first time he has been at the top of the cast and really free to show his stuff. he is inspired: this could be a new beginning for his career. piscopo, from
saturday night live ,
has worked less in the movies, and has always seemed in search of a character. here he finds one .
and then there' s that gallery of supporting performances. albano is so fearsome as fixer that i found myself laughing at a line i don' t think was supposed to be funny: there' s a reference to
mrs. fixer .
keitel is suave and sinister as the casino boss, always staying within character, playing it straight, not going for laughs, and so getting more of them .
it comes out of characters and performances, out of people who have some measure of reality, and whose dilemmas we can share .
an interview with terry gilliam, director of
the man who killed don quixote .
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harry valentini and moe dickstein are both errand boys for the mob. when they lose two hundred fifty thousand dollars, they are set up to kill each other. but they run off to atlantic city, and comedy follows .
buzzing comedies such as the spy who dumped me await you in our summer movie guide. check in for all the info you need.
wise guys is a 1986 black mafia comedy crime film directed by brian de palma and starring danny devito and joe piscopo . a comedy revolving around two small-time mobsters from newark , new jersey , it also features harvey keitel , ray sharkey , lou albano , dan hedaya , and frank vincent . 
wise guys is a 1986 black mafia comedy crime film directed by brian de palma and starring danny devito and joe piscopo. a comedy revolving around two small-time mobsters from newark, new jersey, it also features harvey keitel, ray sharkey, lou albano, dan hedaya, and frank vincent.
wise guys is a 1986 black mafia comedy crime film directed by brian de palma and starring danny devito and joe piscopo. a comedy revolving around two small-time mobsters from newark, new jersey, it also features harvey keitel, ray sharkey, lou albano, dan hedaya, and frank vincent.