Customer Reviews

Mickey Blue Eyes (Widescreen/Full Screen)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I saw this movie at the cinema. Having enjoyed other Hugh Grant flicks, I didn't expect this movie to be the total stinker it turned out to be. I thought Grant and Jeanne Triplehorn were a mis-matched couple. The acting was so-so, the plot very thin, and the humour strained. Overall, this movie wasn't worth the price we paid to see it, and I have no desire to ever watch it again.

This movie had a great idea: an uptight British auctioneer (Hugh Grant) has to deal with his fiancee's mob boss father (James Caan).

While it starts out well, it quickly stops being entertaining as it bombards the audience with unfunny, desperate jokes. Midway through the film, I stopped caring and just wanted it over.

There are few good jokes (the best one has Grant accidently blowing up his own shirt), and one is left wondering the question, what was the point?

Beware, I will be giving away a few plot points.

Somebody somewhere thought that Hugh Grant could be his impish self and make this fish-out-of-water work. It would have been better if the whole thing slept with the fishes.

This could be the worst script of 1999. Grant, an auctioneer at an art house, is about to become engaged to Jeanne Tipplehorne who's father James Cahn just happens to be a small-time figure in a mob-family. Cahn's associates get involved and somehow get Grant to launder mob money by auctioning off the truly awful paintings of the mob-boss' son to mob-boss associates who in turn never actually pay for them. Given the lengths the film goes to display Grant's goody-two-shoes nature, it's preposterous to begin with.

Well, things go a bit astray, thanks to the truly bizare plot point of Grant willing to commit another feloney (tipping off an auction participant when a painting has passed its actual value) and through an incredibly convoluted series of events, mob-boss' son dies. Nobody but Grant and Tipplehorne knows who the real killer is. And the hilarity/hijinks just rolls from here.

Tipplehorne is pretty much a throwaway character here and we're expected to beleive that she'll just disappear after mob-boss son's death. Caan sort of plays this as a cross between Sonny and Freddo Corleone. He has some of Sonny's power and violence and is as naive, if not necessarily as stupid as Freddo. Grant gives his usual (which is also becoming tiresome) nice guy in extrodinary circumstances performance.

If all this is confusing so far, the ending may have you looking at the screen with the expression of a dog hearing a high pitched sound. Are we to assume that all of Mob-bosses associates are going to ignore what they've just seen?

Mmmmm, yes Hugh plays a bumbling English cliche. And guess what? He falls in love with an American! Wow. Now for the twist - she is the daughter of a gangster - so there's the cue for more cliched stereotypes - ooooo the hilarity of it all. You can imagine the fun that ensues, yes that is right IMAGINE, keep it in you imagination by all means, but do not under any circumstances view first hand - I feel that I have done penence for the world by watching this. PS - Any Americans reading? Please stop asking us poor Brits to say 'forget about it'

This film combines romance, comedy and the Mafia quite well. Hugh Grant is romantically involved with a beautiful girl whose father (James Caan) is a NYC mob figure. She tries to hide it from him, but eventually he finds out and becomes innocently involved with her father and the mob. Enjoyable flick.

Witty theme, darker than you'd expect and with some dead-serious undertones (Burt Young's character, for example, is *scary* without a trace of humor) but this is totally appropriate in context and gives the movie a punch that many comedies lack. Hugh Grant's comic timing took me by surprise, as did Jeanne T's convincing rendition of a mafia don's daughter. James Caan was actually the reason I picked this DVD up and did not regret it. Very worthy spin for an evening if you like atypical comedies in general or mafia comedies in particular.

Whenever I find an unfavorable review for this film it really mystifies me. This is one of my favorite comedies!! Hugh Grant does his usual excellent job since this story serves as a PERFECT vehicle for his familiar cinematic personna. There are definitely some unforgettable scenes here...I'm talking about the botched up marriage proposal of course, and who can forget the part where James Caan has to teach Grant how to talk like a gangster?! There are soooo many laughs-- never a dull moment and a great bargain for such a fun movie! If you like Grant, this DVD is a must have! If you don't, then you cannot recognize a truly charismatic performer when you see one.

Another great movie with Hugh Grant. I loved the parody of the mafia mobsters. All the things that are being played out so seriously in films like 'The Godfather', are being parodied in this film.

English actor Hugh Grant, who may be as close as we'll get to a modern-day Cary Grant, was on a roll in 1999. Notting Hill, in which he costarred with Julia Roberts, was a big hit both here and abroad. A couple of months later, Mickey Blue Eyes was released, and Mr. Grant's career once more rolled headlong into a brick wall. The last time this happened to him was several years ago after he appeared in the surprise comedy smash, Four Weddings and a Funeral. This says less about the charming and affable actor's talents than it does about his choice of scripts. Mickey Blue Eyes tries very hard to win us over, but neither the humor nor the love interest proves to be first class.

Grant plays Michael Felgate, manager of a classy New York auction house. He has fallen madly in love with Gina Vitale [Jeanne Tripplehorn], a school teacher. When he asks her to marry him, she refuses. What he doesn't yet know is that her father is in the Mafia, and she doesn't want to expose Michael to that lifestyle. Michael decides to talk to Dad, and it only takes a few minutes for Frank Vitale's [James Caan] background to come out. Although Michael swears to Gina that he will not be affected by the situation, he is soon asked to pay back an unasked for favor to the mob. There's no safe way out for him, and soon more than just his love life is in jeopardy.

One factor that weakens Mickey Blue Eyes is a storyline that does not equal that of many Mafioso movies that have preceded it. For example, the story of a guy who gets sucked into the Mob was far funnier in Analyze This. There are a few genuinely funny sight gags, but the rest have been seen before.

As for the romance, there is almost no chemistry between Grant and Tripplehorn. One reason is that her character does not dominate the screen in the way Julia Roberts did in Notting Hill or Andie McDowell did in Four Weddings and a Funeral. One trick to a good romantic comedy or drama is to show a woman who is worth pursuing no matter what it might cost a guy. Gina Vitale is not that interesting a character, which makes the contortions Michael Felgate puts himself through seem more silly than amusing.

Mickey Blue Eyes is perhaps more entertaining than I have made it sound. Comedy seems to be the hardest genre to describe. The movie has it's moments. It is neither dull nor dreary. It simply is not as strong as I think it should have been. Mr. Grant deserves better, and I think you do, too.

A light romantic comedy with a similar premise to "Meet the Parents" (except "Mickey Blue Eyes" is a far funnier film), or "The Godfather" crossed with "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

Hugh Grant plays a character similar to the ones he played in "Notting Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," except this time his character gets to do the good guy fish out of water routine. And boy does he ever do so effectively. Fughetaboudit? No way. Having Grant speak mob-ese was a stroke of genius.

A very funny and entertaining film, good for a light evening or afternoon matinee, with not nearly the body count of a Simpson/Bruckheimer or Schwartzenegger flick.

Don't expect too much and you shouldn't be disappointed.