1986 · comedy · crime · mob
Wise Guys
Directed by Brian De Palma1h 32m1986
Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.
Our read: Wise Guys (1986) reads as a warm, breathless, grounded comedy · crime · mob entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Warm, breathless, measured comedy / crime, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
- warm
- kinetic
- funny
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Availability in the UK · via JustWatch
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How Wise Guys feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want De Palma mob comedy with DeVito and Piscopo bumbling through Atlantic City.”
Skip it tonight — Broad 80s gangster jokes feel dated—you'll wish for sharper writing.
Eight films that feel like this one.
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