Predrag
This is a great movie. It has substance, it has style, it has humor, and it has some excellent acting. Nicholson is wonderful as Charley Partana, William Hickey is both funny and frightening as Don Corrado Prizzi, and Anjelica Huston does a great job as Maerose. The plot is full of depth and intrigue as Partana falls in love with Turner's character only to find out she's a hit-man like him. So, in Prizzi's Honor, Nicholson and John Huston are working together again, but this time Huston is the director, and Anjelica Huston is on screen this time, as the daughter of a powerful mob family. Anjelica really steals the whole film, and wins an Oscar for her performance. It helps, I guess, if your father is the director, if you are going to steal a film from the ostensible leads, but though John Huston may have been an accessory to the crime, it was really Anjelica's performance that got her that Oscar.The performances are great all around. The old don (William Hickey) in this movie is incredible - creepy and decrepitly sinister, a very unique 'don' character in the catalogue of mafia movies. Charlie's father was great, and of course, Nicholson does a great job as Italian gangster Charley Pattana - his acting is distinct and fitting (i.e. he goes beyond himself as himself). Kathleen Turner as his love interest then wife, Irene, was likable as well. I wasn't always sure I bought the chemistry 100%, but the movie is bigger than just their relationship - which certainly wasn't bad by any accounts - just not 'sizzling', for all the love that was professed. Then again this is love between a hit-woman and a gangster, so I don't know what exactly one could hope for. There was a certain touchiness in the trust that develops between them, and of course there's a comic tone that lightens the whole thing in the first place - but never to the detriment of the story.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
elevenangrymen
THE FILM: John Huston is in his late 70s. He isn't what you'd normally call hot stuff. Richard Condon wrote a book about the mob, it was a comedy. Condon decided he would make his story into a film, so he approached Huston, despite Huston not having made a comedy in some time. Huston went through an impressive roll call of names for the various parts, but he made his mind up in the end with Jack Nicholson playing Brooklyn mobster Charley and Kathleen Turner playing the seductive Irene.Huston even cast his daughter Anjelica in the juicy part of Maerose. The film was not expected to perform well, but it became such a massive sleeper hit that when it came out on VHS, it was still in theatres. Critics loved it, and it nabbed Huston his last Oscar nomination for Best Director, at the young age of 78, a record that stands even today. So it would make sense for this film to be regarded as a classic these days, right?Wrong.THE PLOT: Charley Partanna is born into the mafia, so when he becomes of age he becomes a contract killer for the Prizzi's, one of the most famous of the New York mafia families. At a family wedding, he notices the beautiful Irene Walker. He is immediately smitten, but he loses her and can't find her. Afterwards he gets a call from her, she's in California and she wants to meet him. The next day Charley flies out and they fall immediately in love, and so does she.He flies back home bursting with happiness, and he gets an assignment. Someone stole money from the Prizzi's casino in Vegas, and they aren't happy. It was a husband and wife job, apparently and they are in California, so Charley flies back out. There he shoots the husband, and then waits for the wife to come home. The wife is Irene, and she gives him the money, only there is half of it missing. In doubt over weather to kill or kiss her, Charley flies back to New York (again), and consults his former fiancée, after they have sex on the carpet.Charley decides to kiss her, and flies (seriously, they use the same airplane each time, it's really annoying) back to California and marries Irene. From there, the newlyweds go back to New York (guess the method of transportation) and begin to work on a new job. It turns out that Irene is a contract killer and she and Charley plan to kidnap a bank manager for ransom, only they are forced to shoot a cops wife, turns everyone against them, even each other.THE CRITICISM:I really wanted to like this movie, but I think you can tell by my annoyance over the constant air travel (seriously, it's like an ad for United) that I didn't love this film. I didn't hate it though, because Nicholson is just so entertaining while trying to pull off a Brooklyn accent, though it almost works. It is a black comedy, but I did not laugh once or cringe. I sat there and saw the movie.Above, I wrote that this film has mostly been forgotten, and that is true. it was apparently a big hit in the 80s and I can see why. But it has been partially forgotten. Maybe because 1985 was such a weak year for film, this was regarded as good enough. Nicholson looks a little old, but he and Turner had sufficient box office appeal to pull it off. I had been told that this film was amazing and really bad. Personally I did not enjoy it, but it was entertaining enough.With the performances, Nicholson is so completely over the top that his Charley Partanna almost works, the accent is enough to make me smile, but unfortunately for a two hour long film, a smile is not enough. Kathleen Turner certainly has an abundance of sex appeal, but I found Irene to be incredibly similar to Turner's work in the outstanding Body Heat. She had me confused about whether she was a hero or villain, up until the last few minutes I did not know. Some would sat this helped the performance, but I personally just found it confusing.Anjelica Huston won an Oscar for her work as Maerose Prizzi, but like I said above, it must have been a weak year. Huston was good, but again I couldn't figure out weather she was good or evil. It just ended up confusing me. The rest of the cast does good work, but nothing jumps out. The cinematography can feel rather old school at some parts, but I guess that's just the way Huston interpreted the story. Alex North's score can feel clawing at some points, but the covers of popular Italian music can be entertaining.I felt as if the film was Huston taking a break. It certainly didn't feature any amazing shots or scenes, I cannot comprehend the film's multiple Oscar nominations, it seems to me like a really average film. That is not to say that it wasn't entertaining, Nicholson was enough to save the film from mediocrity. The end result is not the boring film it might have been without Nicholson's presence and Anjelica certainly injects life into her scenes, but in the end, despite the wicked satire of the plot the film never really goes anywhere you want it to and you are left feeling empty.But I guess that's better than nothing.Prizzi's Honor, 1985, Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner and Anjelica Huston. Directed by John Huston, 6.5/10 (C+)(This review is part of an ongoing project to watch and review every John Huston movie. You can view this and other reviews at http://everyjohnhustonmovie.blogspot.ca/)
Agnelin
I feel that I would have understood or liked this movie more if I had seen it back in the 80s (but I was too young for that then). Now in 2010, I feel that it is lacking in many respects, and that it has perhaps aged a little bit and follows the movie-making styles that were the rule thirty years ago.Watched with today's eyes, my personal opinion is that it hasn't stood the test of time the way other old movies do. The black comedy just isn't funny enough, the action is not exciting at all, and it doesn't work as a gangster-mafia movie either (which other older gems obviously succeed at). It aims at many things and doesn't succeed at any of them. There is too much dialog that doesn't serve any real purpose, as it does not move the plot forward or make for any entertainment, either; and I'm all for movies with good dialog, but this one just isn't one of them.I loved Kathleen Turner and Anjelica Huston in this, but everything else was quite disappointing.
Nick Damian
After watching this movie, I was really hoping for a nice awesome tight ending...NOT! Well, I didn't pay for it and I didn't lose out.Very long, drawn out and even boring.Jack Nicholson always has to overdo his characters - and once again, he does this over the top.Kathleen Turner - who is fantastic in almost everything has little to offer in here, because her charter is so flat and uninspiring.Whatever little she has, she makes the best of, and there isn't much for her to work with.Really nothing here that was worth me sitting in a chair for over an hour and rather quite a boring package.Like this review, it just is...and like this review is just as exciting.
