Review of My Blue Heaven (1990) by Zach R — 25 Jun 2012

Number One, Happy Street!

This movie is just that: Happy. It's a farcical send up of mob movies in general and it succeeds so well. If you take this movie at face value, as a joke meant to make you laugh, it will give you all the enjoyment you need for ninety seven minutes of your life.

The title refers to the blue sky, green grass, white picket fence suburbia that Vinnie Antonelli (Martin), a mob informant under the protection of the F.B.I.'s witness protection program, gets trasnplanted to. Unable to cope with his new existence and his rigid, by-the-books case officer, Barney Coopersmith (Moranis), he reverts to a life of crime with the help of other transplanted informants from his old life. Like a big fish in a little naive pond, everyone is a goldfish and Vinny and his newfound cohorts are a school of experienced piranhas. All isn't well of course, as his previous employers are trying to prevent him from reaching his court date and it's up to Barney, who's having trouble coping with him, to save him.

The plot is enough for this movie to hang it's hat on. The real gems here are the characters and the energy with which the actors and actresses take to playing them. Steve Martin gives such an over-the-top performance that his hard to dislike Vinnie and Moranis plays his usual frustrated to confident underdog so well that you want to see him succeed like he does in the end. You like these characters. You find yourself thinking by the end that you wouldn't mind meeting them as real people.

Same goes for the rest of the cast of characters. Joan Cusack's District Attorney, Hannah Stubbs, starts as obnoxious and antagonistic as comedy characters can get but you get to see behind her mask and you can't help but like where she ends up. Bill Irwin ingratiates himself with the audience by doing nothing more than dancing most of the time and Bill Hickey is just perfect as the cantankerous old cronie that reminds you of your grandfather...if he had been in the mob anyway.

This isn't the best comedy every seen but it is a great one. It's silly and tongue-in-cheek at times. It has sentiment and caring. It's a good show. If I ever catch it on TV, I can't help but sit and watch.

Entertaiment Value - 1 1/2 Stars: What can I say. I love this movie and I'm ashamed it isn't in my collection.

Storytelling - 1 Star: Even for a somewhat tried and true genre, it pulls some surprises due to the fact that it is a comedy.

Characters and Dialogue - 1 Star: It's the best part of the movie.

Production Value - 1/2 Star: It has an almost surreal quality sometimes to the way suburbia "looks." So...clean.

Direction and Editing - 1: I honestly can't see how they could do anything different really.

[BTW, just to kind of point it out, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that this movie really influenced later mob-themed movies with it's comedy such as Gun Shy and Analyze This. Am I wrong...was there anything quite like this before My Blue Heaven?].