Mickey Blue Eyes (PG-13) Starring Hugh Grant, James Caan Directed by Kelly Makin Year Released: 1999 A Video Review by Frankie Paiva
Those looking for a nice, cute, and funny romantic comedy can stop right here. Mickey Blue Eyes is another movie that examines the Mafia with a comic flair, the first film of these kind being Analyze This. Since this film is PG-13, we miss out on a lot of the things that made Analyze This a great movie. (Heavy use of the f-word, shootings, etc.) Not to mention that this film centers itself on being a romance rather than just a funny comedy.
Michael Felgate (Grant doing his usual bumbling English thing that has served him so well in the past) is an auctioneer who thinks that he’s finally found the love of his life. He’s known Gina Vitale (Jeanne Tripplehorn) only three months, but plans to pop the question to her at dinner. He does, and she’s horrified, she says that he can’t marry her, even though she loves him. She runs away. Michael goes searching after her for a reason.
It turns out that Gina’s father is Frank Vitale (Caan) who is the head of a local crime family. Gina says that no matter how you resist, they will somehow get you to join their crew, and she doesn’t want that to happen to him. But sooner or later it does. Michael is forced to auction off a terrifying painting created by one of the Mafia men, only to have it bought back by the same men of organized crime. This money laundering scheme is just the beginning. Soon Michael is disposing of dead bodies, auctioning off even more interesting paintings, and is posing as a thug from Kansas City named Mickey Blue Eyes (hence the film’s title).
Everyone in the film plays well off one another. James Caan goes throughout the entire picture looking as if he’s slightly lost, but still does a good job in the movie. Jeanne Tripplehorn has a throw away role as the woman who will still forgive Michael after all he’s done. But Hugh Grant (who was in Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and other English productions) is the star of the show, and his antics (surprisingly) can carry an entire picture. Joe Viterelli (who appeared in a very similar role in Analyze This) also has a great supporting performance.
This is a very simple film that takes it’s premise and twists it every possible way that it can. For this reason, I think that it can never get more than a B+, but I still enjoyed it. Much of the humor just keeps getting crazier and crazier, and while we’ve seen most of the stuff here before, (the film is nowhere near groundbreaking), the movie is still a whole lot of fun. Rent Mickey Blue Eyes tonight, and enjoy a couple of laughs.
Overall Grade: B Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some violence and sensuality. The Young-Uns: This film contains two f-words and some other language. There is also a heavy focus on lying and shooting people. There are also some shooting scenes, but they won’t be hard for anyone to handle. Good Age: 12 and up
A Review by Frankie Paiva E-Mail me at SwpStke@aol.com Visit The Movie Page at http://moviepage.hypermart.net/ Visit my personal page at http://www.homestead.com/teenagemoviecritic/mainpage.html
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