Review of Prizzi's Honor (1985) by Ben L — 08 Dec 2014

I have no idea what in the world is going on with this movie. Is it a comedy? Well, no, there aren't any real jokes or even humorous things that happen. Is it a crime drama? Well, no, the accents and acting are so ridiculously over-the-top that there's no way someone could take it seriously.

I literally made it until the very final scene and still didn't know how the movie-makers expected me to react to Prizzi's Honor. The events of the story kind of play out like they were trying to make the next Godfather, but that doesn't work so well when you've got Uncle Lewis (from Christmas Vacation) as the Godfather, and Jack Nicholson struggling through one of the most forced accents in cinema history.

I started to kind of laugh at the whole movie, not because anyone said or did anything funny, but just because the entire production was that poor. Prizzi's Honor is one of those rare movies that I wanted to stop watching about halfway through, but managed to make it through by relishing its awfulness.

I highly recommend that everyone avoid this movie like the plague, it is almost unwatchable, unless you are one of those people who like a movie that is "so bad it's good." How in the world did this get nominated for so many Oscars?