Chillichap's Review - Oscar 1991 Comedy Crime Movie Starring Sylvester Stallone, Ornella Muti & Peter Reigert - A Film I've Just Watched

Hello!

This film popped up on YouTube this morning and I, being a bit of a fan of Sly Stallone, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Often if you've never heard of a film-there's usually a very good reason. Read on to find out why I think this film may have slipped under the radar...



The film starts off quite poignantly with Angelo 'Snaps' Provolone a gangster played by Sly Stallone visiting his father played by Kirk Douglas on his deathbed. Although the legendary actor does indeed look close to death, in real life he actually goes on to live another 29 years! His father persuades Angelo known as 'Snaps' to go straight and Snaps promises to obey his father's dying wish. 

Snaps' hired hands aren't sure about their boss going straight and pretty soon one of his competitors Aldo (played by Peter Reigert) hears about it. Nobody, including the police, believes Snaps has gone straight and end up spying on him. Meanwhile, Snaps sets about improving himself and trying to legitimize his business. Snaps' accountant Anthony Rossano (played by Vincent Spano) comes to see him and asks for a seriously big raise because he's fallen in love and wants to make his new girl happy. He gets the raise and then reveals that it's Snaps' daughter Lisa (played by Marisa Tomel) that he wants to marry only he's got the wrong girl, plus he then reveals he's been embezzling Snaps. 

There's an extremely complicated love interest involving Snaps' daughter who pretends to be pregnant and another girl who pretends to be Snapps' daughter, but it turns out she actually is! Meanwhile, the mob is moving in on Snaps. It's easy to lose the plot if you miss just a few seconds of screen time. Added to this, several identical bags get mixed up-containing jewelry, cash, and lingerie.  

Snaps' linguistic tutor Dr Thornton Poole (played by the excellent Tim Curry) appears and is suddenly a suitor for Snaps' daughter. All the chaos finally settles down as the mob arrives to take out (kill) Snaps, but they crash into a police car on the way. I won't ruin the ending for you, but it's not a bad comedy romp-it's just not great. 

Sly Stallone's performance as Snaps is credible as a mob boss trying to go straight and improve himself. Tim Curry's performance is easily the best in my opinion lending a hilarious air of refined humour where he's always correcting people's use of the English language. There are cameos by a lot of great actors, including Don Ameche (Mortimer Duke in Trading Places), Jocelyn O'Brien, and Eddie Bracken. On the whole, I'm glad I saw it for various performances, but it just didn't hit the mark for me.


Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap


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