Director Barry Levinson("Rain Man"),brings us this quirky comedy of life in the not so glamorous side of Hollywood. Joe Pesci plays Jimmy Alto, "Actor Extraordinaire". He knows it, his pal William(Christian Slater) knows it, it even says that exact thing on the bus stop ad he has invested in(using his girlfriend's money). Alas no one else in Hollywood has seemed to discover this brillant acting talent yet!
It seems the criminal element in his neighborhood make a much better living stealing car radios and such, then he does. When his girlfriend(Victoria Abril) is mugged and Jimmy's car is broken into("Why does anyone bother rolling up their windows, ya just have to pay to fix em when they rob your radio?"),Jimmy and William, who's a little on the slow side, decide to start video taping the criminals and turning them over to the police.And not just the tapes, the perps are delivered as well.This action turns into the biggest break in Jimmy's career he could ever hope for.
The police assume that some big time vigalante group is responsible for these actions, and Jimmy seeing at as the role of a lifetime makes himself over as "Jericho" the leader of this group, and really gets into "method acting".He's thrilled as he see's himself(in disguise) on all the news shows. He's finally got some attention! Pretty soon the police and the criminals are after "Jericho" and Jimmy must decide on an ending for this story.It's all very "Hollywood" right up to the end,and you should at least stay for the beginning of the credits as there are some great surprise cameos.
Joe Pesci is marvelous as the stuggling actor who is enthralled with the great movie stars of the past. Christian Slater plays the spacey William perfectly, and Victoria Abril has a great chemistry with Pesci and is wonderful as the girlfriend who can only sit back and say in her delightful Spanish accent"Are you out of your mind?!"
The film is alot of fun, the musical soundtrack is great, and the VHS has a nice picture and sounds terrifc in the Hi-Fi Stereo. I would even say 4 and 1/2 stars if the film hadn't been "formatted to fit your screen", but still very much worth the view.
If you've ever had a dream..this film is for you....Laurie
