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ridiculous rating

Better Late Then Never

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo) are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.This film is a bit of an enigma in Brian De Palma's career, not fitting in with the themes or style he is known for. In fact, I would have expected something like this to come from Billy Wilder before De Palma, but yet it exists.I do have to say I loved the roles filled by Lou Albano and Harvey Keitel. I mean, wow, despite a relatively weak film, Keitel still brings his A game.Roger Ebert wrote, "Wise Guys is an abundant movie, filled with ideas and gags and great characters. It never runs dry." Apparently this enthusiasm has "run dry" since its release, as now the film is largely forgotten and Rotten Tomatoes gives it a poor 33%. Personally, I thought it was just average.

"Scarface" director Brian de Palma's "Wise Guys" should have been called "Stupid Fellas." This uninspired Danny DeVito & Joe Piscopo Mafia comedy doesn't contain shred of humor. Suffice to say, DeVito and Piscopo are no Laurel and Hardy and de Palma doesn't have a funny bone in his body. Scenarist George Gallo wrote this turkey before he penned the classic "Midnight Run" and he concocted this crap with "Johnny Dangerous" scribe Norman Steinberg. "Wise Guys" qualifies as one of the worst mob comedies. Heavy handed with idiotic "Three Stooges" heroes who elicit no sympathy, this crime comedy is a flat line disaster from fade-in to fade-out. The Gallo & Steinberg jokes will make you cringe instead of grin and DeVito and Piscopo have no chemistry.Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito of "Batman Returns") and Moe Dickestein (Joe Piscopo of "Dead Heat") serve as a couple of errand boys for heavyweight crimeboss Anthony Castelo (Dan Hedaya of "Freeway") who has been pick-up and deliver his laundry and groceries. When we first see them in action, Harry has to crank up Castelo's car so that if any of his enemies has wired dynamite to the starter or the door, Harry will be blown to smithereens. A delayed timer saves Harry's life, but this scene is the only one where de Palma conjures up in suspense as everybody makes bets that Harry will never survive. Castelo surrounds himself with equally heavyweight thugs and they are literally a who's who of Mafia crime movies. The only one who amounts to a character is Frank the Fixer (Lou Albano of "Stay Tuned") whose enormous appetite is exceeded only for his hate for Harry and Moe. He shows nonstop contempt for Moe and calls him 'dickmeat.' He takes our disastrous duo out to the race track to place a bet for Mr. Castelo on a horse. Since Moe always loses Castelo's money, Harry comes up with a surefire scheme to make them heroes in Castelo's universe. Instead, Harry and Moe don't bet on the right horse and lose. Now, they owe Castelo a whopping quarter of a million dollars.Castelo has his henchmen separate and question Harry and Moe under the worse circumstances and neither of our protagonists sells each other out. Castelo cannot believe their loyalty to each other and decides to test it by letting them live if they will kill each other. Of course, our heroes have no idea that they are gong to shoot each other. Castelo's bartender Marco (Ray Sharkey) dons a disguise and tries to warn them. They plunge into a church where Marco tries to tell them that they have been assigned to kill each other, but the Fixer shoots him. Here's an example of the lame-brained comedy in "Wise Guys." To make themselves appear inconspicuous to everybody else in the church, Marco demands that they behave exactly like him, so when he takes a bullet in the back, they imitate his dying actions. Hah! Hah! Hah! Eventually, Harry spots the Fixer with a smoking revolver in his fist and they flee, stealing Fixer's Cadillac.First, Harry and Moe phone up their relatives and warn them about the impending trouble so that they can get out of town alive. Second, Harry fakes a phone call to his Uncle Mike in Atlantic City because he believes that Uncle Mike—a connected mobster—can bail them out of their predicament. They repaint Fixer's caddy pink and wreck it considerably on the way to a luxurious motel in Atlantic City where they settle into the most expensive suite using Fixer's credit card and proceed to wine and dine themselves in preparation for visiting Uncle Mike. They run into an old friend, Bobby DiLea (Harvey Keitel of "Reservoir Dogs") who owns the motel and Harry promises to tell him everything. DiLea already has a glimmer of an idea because he has learned that they are charging everything on Fixer's credit card. Later, the scene shifts back to Newark in a restaurant when Fixer watches in rage as the waiter cuts up his credit card because his credit has been overextended. Not long afterward, Castelo calls in his henchmen and dispatches them to Atlantic City to complete the job that they previously bungled. Predictably, Mike is no longer alive and our heroes find themselves deeper in doo-doo. Moe leaves Harry, but Harry's grandmother gives him the quarter million that they need to pay off Castelo.Brian de Palma shoots "Wise Guys" without any of his swirling characteristic camera work. He sticks with straight cuts and plain-Jane camera work. The humor is labored and the wrap-all-the-ends-up conclusion is the best thing about his movie. The only surprise is the one that DiLea pulls on Castelo's men as well as us because we think that he is a rat, too. Only die-hard de Palma fans will like this if they can handle the half-witted humor.

"Wise Guys" is probably the least regarded movie that Brian De Palma has ever made. After the financial failure of "Body Double", but before his blockbuster "Untouchables", this flat little comedy is an attempt to regain some clout and profit for the studios.A gangster comedy in the vein of "The Freshman" (Brando) or "Analyse This" (De Niro), "Wise Guys" revolves around two friends who bumble from one silly situation to the next as they "try to make it big". There are traces of "Abbot and Costello" and traces of the "Two Stooges" (De Palma names numerous characters after each troupe), but the comedy feels dated and needs more wit. Worse still, "Wise Guys" finds De Palma reigning back all his better instincts, the film devoid of the flamboyant camera work which so defines the rest of the director's filmography.5/10- Worth no viewings.

between two very serious and successful gangster movies ( Scarface and The Untouchable ), DePalma shot another crime epic called in the 80's called Wise Guys. Well, he changed one's tack here completely. Wise Guys may handle about emotionless gangsters and vengeful extorts, it is in fact a wacky comedy and a light-hearted spoof towards the genre that DePalma loves so much himself. All the stereotypical mob-characters are there and all the gangster-clichés are being mocked (the scene where DeVito has to start the big Boss ' car while everybody is waiting for the possible bomb to explode is hilarious). DeVito and Piscopo are still only errand-boys for the Newark mafia and they're sick of their jobs. They want to do a little double-cross on the mob but they fail completely and have to run for their lives. That is more or less the plot of Wise Guys but there are enough extra twists and surprises added to this to give you a very good time...a great ending included. Of course, it doesn't come close to the other gangster-epics DePalma shot do to its playful character. But I guess DePalma and the complete cast was aware of that as well. In general, a nice change and fun to watch...the only irritating aspect from time to time is DeVito's overacting!