Why the 90s Mob Comedy Genre Deserves More Love
Why the 90s Mob Comedy Genre Deserves More Love
(This article was originally published in May 2020 for Rule Mag)
The 90s did a lot of things in entertainment right (and a whole lot wrong, looking at you That-One-Batman-Movie-Where-His-Suit-Had-Nipples). But there’s an underappreciated sub-genre that deserves a look back, the 90s mob comedy. Unlike later mob comedies, they’re well written with quality snappy dialog and a genuinely captivating — albeit silly — plots. No offense to more recent movies like In the Mix and Let’s Be Cops, but they’re not exactly captivating gut-busters.
Lets consider four quality contenders, real somebodies of the genre.
Oscar
Premise: Stallone is a mobster in the 30s who has decided to become a legitimate business man the very same day he thinks the authorities are going to bust him. The whole movie takes place in his mansion and is nearly in real time. The best way to describe it is an antics movie, there’s a lot of running in and out of rooms, one-liners, and prop gags.
Best Non-Spoiler Line: “You have such nice rounded diphthongs!”
Why it deserves love: The cast. Stallone plays opposite Tim Curry, that level of ridiculousness should be enough to reel you in.
Analyze This
Premise: A psychiatrist finds himself treating a mobster as a patient and inevitably gets mixed up in his nefarious dealings.
Best Non-Spoiler Line: “What is my goal here, to make you a happy, well-adjusted gangster?”
Why it deserves love: Again, the stars. De Niro, the Robert De Niro satirizes every great gangster role he’s ever played and who could do a better job as his neurotic psychiatrist than Billy Crystal?
My Blue Heaven
Premise: A by-the-book FBI agent has to protect a larger than life mobster out in the burbs.
Best Non-Spoiler Line: “I never touched a gun in my life. That and that alone forever doomed me to middle management.”
Why it deserves love: The critics did not go for this one, but frankly that can be a sign of a good comedy, most critics are too desperate to appear intellectual to have a good sense of humor. This is easily the silliest movie of the bunch, Steve Martin plays opposite Rick Moranis. Yes, the same Rick Moranis who was the dad in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and the dorky neighbor-turn-demon-keymaster in Ghostbusters. In fact they’re a proven duo, getting laughs in Parenthood and Little Shop of Horrors together.
Get Shorty
Premise: Its…convoluted. Something about insurance fraud, Hollywood producers, conflicting mobs and $300,000. Or was it $500,000? It’s not a side splitter but you’ll have some good chuckles.
Best Non-Spoiler Line: “Rough business, this movie business. I’m gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest.”
Why it deserves love: You guessed it, its just a perfectly casted movie. John Travolta plays his usual sub-zero cool and Danny DeVito, well, he does his DeVito thing.
To bring it all together, every one of these casts are oddcouples and that’s what makes them magic. You don’t go into these movies expecting the actors to have good chemistry and yet they excel. The scripts are goofy yet smart, and you’re just as wrapped up in the story as you would be with any other.
These movies all take a frightening real-world phenomenon that has made some of the greatest dramas of all time, and turns it into lighthearted, relatable fun. That’s no easy feat when the jokes go beyond mocking the New York accent and incessantly talking about Italian food.
They had varying degrees of success and some, like Oscar, have been nearly forgotten but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining. They deserve a watch, and with all these hours at home there’s no better time than the present.
