Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) was groomed from the time he was born to be a hit-man for the Prizzi crime family. Don Corrado Prizzi (William Hickey) is the leader. His sons Eduardo (Robert Loggia) and Dominic (Lee Richardson) help run the business. Maerose (Anjelica Huston) is the family black sheep disowned by her father Dominic. She still has a good relationship with her ex-husband Charley. At a wedding, Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) catches Charley's eye and they start dating. Dominic has hired an outsider for a hit. Meanwhile they send Charley to hit people who are cheating the Prizzis. It gets complicated when Irene is the one with the stolen money and he finds out that she's actually the outside hitter.The movie is a little dark. I didn't find it funny. It has a few quirks. The beginning has the feel of 'The Godfather' with the wedding. The caper has a bit of wacky. Nicholson is not the traditional Italian mobster. I wouldn't say it's great with all the youse. There are a few slow spots before getting to the marriage. There are a lot of good stuff here also. I like all the great actors here. William Hickey is just terrific as the Don. It's a fine movie but I'm not sure it's Oscar worthy. I guess the John Huston name made it a safe pick.

John Huston, as he reached the end of his life, was clearly searching for new ground to cover as a director. In this film he may have put a foot wrong, but that's not to say this isn't a very, very enjoyable film. You can sense from the quality of the performances the willingness of the actors to do anything for the chance to work with the legendary actors. There is a virtual clinic put on by all the key performers in this movie, from Jack Nicholson putting on a very convincing Brooklyn accent to depict a hard-nosed, not-too-bright tough guy to Kathleen Turner as his romantic and professional foil. Turner, in this film gives us the blueprint for how James Bond could ever be depicted as a woman. She sizzles with cool. For my money, one of the most amazing, terrifying performances I've ever seen is William Hickey as Don Prizzi in this film. His voice is not intimidating but his demeanor is. The detachment and reserve in his voice makes his cool demeanor all the more terrifying. He was so scary that I actually wondered if it was a joke. It nearly veers into farce, it's so scary. He steals every scene he is in as the aging mob boss. Honestly I found Angelica Huston's performance a bit one-note. She had the look of a hangdog puppy in the picture and I didn't feel much charisma emanating from her.I thought softening up a wonderful plot with some sentimentality was not the best decision but the acting, direction, and the fencing between the two leads make this a very enjoyable movie.

Director John Huston was 79 years old when he made this...and it shows. The man who started his directing career with the great Maltese Falcon in 1941 is way "out of touch" here. The facts that he was a huge cigar smoker and a "hard" drinker would not have helped his brain age naturally. Anyway the directing is very clunky, the photography pedantic, the continuation (editing) poor and the script only average. Jack Nicholson plays the mentally challenged Mafia hit man Charley Partanna...but his one dimensional performance is boring. Kathleen Turner becomes Mrs. Partanna after an absurd sequence which (I guess) was supposed to be funny. The "expert reviewers" call this a black comedy. Its not really. It is a below par movie which is only very mildly amusing . (more grey than black). Made in 1985, it has already become dated and insignificant. Remarkably...it was nominated for 8 Oscars. It won one...Anjelica Huston (Johns daughter) for best actress in a supporting role. She deserved it.

In the 1970s the honourable mafia family was the stuff of sophisticated drama, so it only follows that in the 1980s it would be fair game for a spoof. Prizzi's Honor actually features a fairly serious and workable plot, a Machiavellian tale of revenge and double-cross, and looks like it may have begun life at one point as a straight crime pictures. However rather than rehashing a bunch of clichés it takes the tack of sending up that world of casual violence, unshakeable loyalty and half-mumbled Italian accents.Yes, the basic approach here is to reel out the sillier aspects of the mafia movie and make them sillier still. Jack Nicholson reprises his post-lobotomy face from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and throws in a few Brando-esque grunts and bits of business. It's not among his best comedic roles. William Hickey is actually quite subtle and nuanced as the stereotypical elderly Don, but the performance is just too much of a caricature for anything outside complete farce, which this isn't. Prizzi's Honor does however contain some very fine non-comedy performances. Anjelica Huston stands out in her smooth and confident portrayal of the manipulative outcast daughter. She really dominates the screen without ever once exaggerating or using some trite gesture. Kathleen Turner is very good too. Watch her eyes in the scene where she and Nicholson have their first drink together – she's not listening to him, she's eyeing him up.Director John Huston was a veteran of the classic era, now in the twilight of his career. In Prizzi's Honor he displays the professionalism of his generation and the uncomplicated, unostentatious approach of an older man, as well as the various tricks that he had been using to make great pictures since the 1940s. He knows exactly how little input is really needed from the camera, letting the action play out in some very long takes, shifting our focus by smoothly dollying in. Sometimes, rather than changing angle or moving in he will have the actor do the work. For example, there is a scene with John Randolph on the phone, sitting back in his chair, but at a key moment in the dialogue he leans forward, effectively putting himself into close-up without the camera moving an inch. His detachment from the action can be sublimely elegant, such as the garage door slowly coming down for a killing to take place offscreen. Huston was never known as much of a comedy director, and as I've hinted the cod-Sicilian business isn't that funny, but he works in a handful of nice sight gags such as a trio of rudeboys all handcuffed together in a row.The trouble is, Prizzi's Honor is a dreadful mediocrity, and it's not just the hit-and-miss comedy that is to blame. True, the plot is strong enough to have been done without the spoofing, but to be fair the mobster archetypes are so familiar it would be hard to do it any other way without seeming corny. The real problem is that it simply doesn't have enough meat to its bones. There are some decent characters, and their machinations certainly make for a good story, but there just aren't the great, memorable set-pieces or crackling dialogue to make the whole thing rattle along as any decent crime drama should, comical or otherwise. It's a shame. With the amount of talent available here this is a wasted opportunity.