Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Kelly becomes a gangster to pay for his sick mother's operation and is soon the most famous name in the city. Meanwhile his brother Tommy rises as a prosecutor and has no idea what Johnny does. The mother, for her part, keeps having new operations. The subject is not crime but the template of thirties gangster pictures. The film takes every cliché of that era in turn and inflates it: the self-sacrificing mother, the good brother, the courtroom scene, the rise and the fall. The form is parody: the scenes are shot straight and the lines are nonsense. The most cited joke is the Italian-accented character who tries to swear in every sentence and does it with invented words; those made-up curses entered American popular culture. Amy Heckerling directs, having drawn a great deal of attention with her previous film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High; this one stays far more inside its template. It fell short at the box office and became a cult item through television repeats. Michael Keaton plays Johnny, Joe Piscopo the rival gangster and Marilu Henner the woman he loves. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties parody comedy and early Michael Keaton. Who it is not for: anyone with no patience for jokes that have aged; parts of the film fall flat now.