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Friday, November 26, 2021

LOOKIN' ITALIAN (aka SHOWDOWN)

 
The official American DVD for Lookin' Italian (© Guy Magar/A Wing & A Prayer Productions/Showcase Entertainment/Vision Quest Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Last night I fancied a change from my more usual sci fi, fantasy, animation, and musicals movie preferences, so I chose a relatively obscure comedy/crime movie, Lookin' Italian (aka Showdown). I'd purchased its DVD earlier yesterday for 10p, as I'd recognised it as being Matt Le Blanc's first movie starring role, back in his pre-Friends TV megastardom days (previously he'd only had bit parts in films).

Directed and produced by Guy Magar, who also wrote its screenplay, and released by Showcase Entertainment in 1994, Lookin' Italian is for much of its length a genial, easy-going comedy that revolves around how Italian-American Vinny (Jay Acovone), a still-young but ostensibly prematurely dusty old uncle keeping his head down working in a dusty old bookshop after breaking free from the mob in New York and moving to LA, deals with his polar opposite, likeable but louche nephew Anthony (Matt Le Blanc) living with him, who has little up top but seemingly plenty down below as he is most definitely the local babe magnet and most definitely not bookshop-assistant material.

Anxious to save his fuddy duddy uncle from himself, Anthony coerces an initially reluctant Vinny into joining him and his equally boisterous friends at parties. And much to his own surprise, Vinny finds himself enjoying revisiting this outgoing lifestyle, one that he'd shunned ever since leaving NY, and even finding love for the first time in a long time in the shape of beautiful travel writer Danielle (Stephanie Richards).

This happy state is soon blown apart, however, when out of nowhere one evening a terrifying, lethal hit takes place, whereby a car driving by shoots dead Anthony's current girlfriend Dominique (Nichole Carter) and her brother Leon (Tommy Morgan Jr), one of Anthony's best friends, leaving a distraught Anthony cradling their blood-soaked dead bodies. Despite Vinny's desperate attempts to stop him, Anthony vows revenge, resulting in Vinny's traumatic, long-concealed reason why he quit the mob and NY tumbling out, which shatters their relationship to its core.

Can it ever recover, will Anthony even survive his frenzied attempt to kill those responsible for the murders, and will Vinny do whatever it takes, including conquering once and for all the horrific semi-suppressed memories that are now fully reawakened, in order to save Anthony from making the same hideous mistake that he made? Let's just say that from now on, the comedy in this movie is replaced very starkly by revenge and retribution. But how about redemption? You'll have to watch the movie to find out! Strong language throughout, incidentally.

Despite being a limited-budget, little-publicised film, Lookin' Italian is slickly produced, capitalising upon the evident real-life rapport between the two leads, and in particular upon a young, somewhat goofy Le Blance's engaging, laid-back persona, which shines out throughout the film. It also stars Lou Rawls, previously familiar to me as a fantastic singer but now known to me as a fantastic actor too, in a restrained but powerful supporting role as Willy, the grandfather of slain Dominique and Leon.

With its emphasis firmly upon family love, honour, and loyalty above all else, Lookin' Italian is definitely a hidden gem of a movie that crime and comedy aficionados alike will enjoy, as long as you do not expect it to be The Godfather (some critics apparently do, bizarrely), which it has no pretences to be. Critics notwithstanding (and who listens to them anyway?), I for one am very happy indeed to have chanced upon its DVD today - 10p of my money and 97 minutes of my viewing time very well spent, that's for sure! Highly recommended!!

And if you'd like to know more about it, check out an official trailer for Lookin' Italian here on YouTube (but be warned, it contains spoilers) – or click here to watch the entire movie, currently viewable free of charge on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

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