I actually thought, after seeing this movie, and watching Siskel & Ebert giving it 2 'Thunbs Up!', that everyone would be saying 'No no...Thank YOU, Mr. Acavano!' And there's a great bit with a pink Cadillac, accompanied by Springsteen's song, getting totally and gleefully disrepected. Piscopo and DeVito are a great team.

I don't know why this film was so horribly panned when it was first released, its just a harmless and lightweight gangster comedy. I will admit that director Brian DePalma who has directed such classics as Scarface and The Untouchables was taking a huge risk by agreeing to take on this lightweight comedy, but I think it ended up turning out just fine. DeVito and Piscopo have surprisingly good on-screen chemistry and DePalma's directing style shows through and works well in this film. This was certainly one of Danny DeVito's better comedies in the 1980's. I was also glad to see that Roger Ebert actually gave this fun comedy a good review. ***/****. Great fun.

This movie is silly but never stupid, so you can just enjoy it for what it is...a Jersey mob comedy. Principals DeVito and Piscopo are life-long friends who live next door to each other in Newark, and their source of income comes from the mob figure (Dan Hedaya) who allows them to pick up his dry cleaning and start his car (this was a funny scene..DeVito starting a car that might explode..the entire neighborhood clears out in 20 seconds! Plus the other mobsters bet on the outcome!) and go to the track for him. They are sometimes joined by Captain Lou Albano, who is out of his mind but at least did not attach those rubber bands to his face like he did when he was WWF-connected, and he has little patience for either of these flunkies.

Don't want to give anything else away, but the friends are put in the position of having to test their friendship and on the whole, this is a very satisfying comedy with a two leads in good form, great character actors like Julie Bovasso, Antonia Rey, Patti Lupone, Ray Sharkey, and an appearance by Harvey Keitel, too! Plus authentic Jersey locations, including a trip to Atlantic City..

Brian DePalma directed, and he is not renowned for his comedies but maybe he should be.