(NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)
While most of popular novels, comic books and Hollywood movies claim that nobody could leave Mafia and actually hope to stay alive, Lookin' Italian, 1994 drama written and directed by Guy Magar, claims just the opposite. Its protagonist Vinny Pallazo (played by Jay Acovone) is a New York mobster who made one tragic error in his career and simply couldn't get over it and remain the mobster any more. So, he decides to leave his criminal career and move to Los Angeles where he is supposed to live quiet, mundane life. However, his young nephew Anthony Mannetti (played by Matt Le Blanc) starts hanging around with suspicious street characters. Vinny, worried that his nephew might choose the path of crime, decides to check up those people and they turn out to be normal people. But Vinny's and Anthony's happiness is short-lived and the violent incident would force both men to make some tough choices.
Lookin' Italian is relatively obscure title, and this might be somewhat surprising, since Matt Le Blanc, star of the very popular Friends TV show, happens to play one of the leading roles, and even does rather good job in it (although there is some ridiculous over-acting at the end). But the real star of the film is Jay Acovone, character actor specialised for the roles of heavies. Here he makes a convincing and, at the times, even touching portrait of a man who tries to open a new page in his life. The script by is, on the other hand, not so convincing, since it employs too many modern crime film cliches - Mafia is over-romanticised in huge contrast with barbaric inner cities. However, Magar as a director manages to overcome limits of the script and wraps this story into nice and more than watchable package. So, those viewers who stumble into this film shouldn't be discouraged by its obscurity.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on August 2nd 2002)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/37015-lookin-italian?language=en-US
Critic: AA
