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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 14092
Released: August 30, 2005 |
| Our Price: $7.24 |
| Used Price: $7.06 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Best friends Harry and Moe are go-getters inside a Newark mob outfit. They go get the boss's drycleaning. They go get his car. Now they have a new task: go get each other. The boss has secretly hired each pal to whack the other. Brian De Palma, whose Scarface and Carlito's Way are mobster-movie classics, finds the genre's funny bone in a comedy "filled with ideas and gags and great characters. It never runs dry" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). Dan Hedaya and Harvey Keitel are among the ensemble's portrayers of kingpins and palookas. And Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo play the pals whose friendship might survive the mob - if they don't kill each other first.
Description of Wise Guys:
Brian De Palma is one of our most stylish and subversive directors of suspense and horror, but as much nervous laughter as his best films inspire he's out of his depth when trying to direct an out-and-out comedy, as this film proved. Danny De Vito and Joe Piscopo play lifelong friends and low men on the mafia totem pole. When they foul up, their boss (Dan Hedaya) offers each his life in exchange for a favor: He must kill his best friend. The idea of two friends not knowing that they each have a contract on the other's life should be good for a few laughs and De Vito works hard at it (Piscopo, on the other hand, is a hopeless case). But De Palma can't find the laughs in this film, despite the frenetic pacing and performances. --Marshall Fine
Wise Guys Reviews:
good service 
2008-09-08 - I received good service .... not the movie I thought it was but I'm not the type to return anything. My fault.
DePalma Makes You Scream...With Laughter!!! 
2007-10-09 - After spending 2+ years making the epic gangster crime drama "Scarface", DePalma immediately released another (great) typical satiric erotic psychological mystery thriller, "Body Double"; however, he felt the need to let off some steam and get a bit of comedic relief from all of the blood and violence. So, he made one of the funniest comedies ever made.
Casting such talented people as Danny Devito, Joe Piscopo, Dan Hedaya, Harvey Keitel, Captain Lou Albano, Patti Lupone, Ray Sharkey, working from a script by George Gallo, produced by Aaron Russo, DePalma put his trademark stamp on this film, and turned out something so funny that you will be screaming with laughter the entire time.
Harry (Devito) and Moe (Piscopo) are two neighbors/best friends who happen to work for the local crime/mob boss (Hedaya), hoping and dreaming (and scheming) to one day be their own boss, and have their own 'crew'. In the meantime, they are very low on the totem pole, living in Newark, being the 'go-getter' guys for their crime boss, they go get his dry cleaning, start his car, etc., etc. One day at the tracks, Harry has a 'brainstorm' to bet their boss' money on the WRONG horse, thinking it would win and he and Moe could make off with the cash, and no one would be none the wiser since their boss' bets usually were a bust anyways. Well, today is not their lucky day!
Seperated and threatened, one is played against the other, trying to force them to rat one out; but, they are too loyal to each other, something that really bothers the Boss. So, he tells them secretly, that to make things right with him, one must 'off' the other, and he gives each one a gun. In the meantime, bets start rolling in amongst the other 'employees' (mob thugs) as to who will 'bump' who first, Harry or Moe? They are warned that there is a hit out on them by the local bartender (Sharkey), so they steal The Fixer's (Albano) car, a pink Cadillac, and off to Atlantic City they go to see Harry's uncle Larry.
They are met with a very cold welcome by Harry's aunt, so they go to a long-time friend, Bobby's (Keitel), casino/hotel to stay. This is possibly the most hilarious section of the film, but it does keep the laughter coming as it moves along, with a brisk pace, and several twists and turns in the plot.
Yes, even though it is a comedy, DePalma throws in a terrific last minute twist that is utterly climatic and fantastic and hilarious.
Everyone in this is hilarious, especially Albano, Devito, and Piscopo, who never did a funnier film before OR after this one. Not to be mistaken and/or confused with the dreadful "Johnny Dangerously" (which came out the same year, something Hollywood has done to DePalma to this day, try to compete with his films by releasing a 'Hollywood' version that s**ks).
Released in 1986 to mixed reviews (Siskel & Ebert gave it a HUGE thumbs up), this is the film that stupid comedies like "Dumb And Dumber" only wish they could be, and it's just as funny (if not funnier) today as it was 21 years ago when it was released. Heavily recommended! Thank you.
Interesting actors, forced to mimic themselves 
2006-08-28 - Thought this was funny at the time, but now: Plot "twists" straight out of wrestling...was Captain Lou Albano the screenwriter? New York locale scenes always overcast; looks like it was made in the dismal 70's instead of mid-80's. Joe Piscopo is a very likeable guy, but he should stick to sketch comedy.
A Classic (like Frank the Fixer's car) ...
2006-07-22 - One of those old classics that you watch over and over.
Great Actors.
Lots of funny scenes and lines you may find yourself repeating (No No No, thank YOU Mr. Accavano!!).
I must have seen this 20X on Cable.
It belongs in the collection.
Don't Be a Stunad! See This Movie! 
2005-09-10 - I saw this movie in the theatre back in 1986 and enjoyed it immensely. The critics, with Siskel and Ebert being one of the few exceptions, generally dismissed it. I think they missed the boat on this one. Danny DeVito, in probably one of his better screen roles, and Joe Piscopo are a funny and engaging comic team. If Piscopo had more opportunities like this he would have had a sustained film career away from "Saturday Night Live". What a great supporting cast Brian DePalma has assembled here: Dan Hedaya, Frank Vincent, and a hilarious Captain Lou Albano. A minor quibble is the film underutilizes the late, great Ray Sharkey(Sonny Steelgrave from TV's "Wiseguy") and Harvey Keitel. This is a film that deserves to be discovered and definitely be re-evaluated by it's detractors.
