Mickey Blue Eyes (1999, PG-13)

Directed by Kelly Makin

Written by Adam Sheinman and Robert Kuhn

Starring Hugh Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and James Caan

As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)

Somehow, I feel like I've traveled back in time. I feel like I have journeyed to a land not far away (my local multiplex) and a not-so-long time ago (February) when I was watching Analyze This. By the time Analyze This came out, it was mob spoof number three ("The Don's Analyst" on behalf of TMC, "The Sopranos" on behalf of HBO). Mickey Blue Eyes becomes number four this summer as Hugh Grant once attempts to be a perfect British gentleman in awkward circumstances.

We have the same backdrop that Analyze This did, of people getting whacked and an outsider being let into the group. We have the same silly jokes, the same good moments, and the same generally bearable nature. "The Sopranos" and Analyze This both stand out on the list of good mob spoofs, but Mickey Blue Eyes seems just to take on this newest formula: the mob spoof.

Sure, they left out the shrink this time but they put Hugh Grant in instead. This time, Grant wants to marry Jeanne Tripplehorn (after 3 months of dating) but she doesn't want him to become a wiseguy. Between Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes, I sense a pattern with botched mob weddings, but who cares.

Mickey Blue Eyes does a fair job of holding its own as a movie, adding in some original scenes such as Grant tripping over his British accent as he attempts to say fuggetaboutit, a phrase which I was able to pull off living in New Jersey after only a week without a drop of Italian blood in me. Another great point comes as two pairs of mobsters try to bury bodies on opposite sides of a small pile of dirt.

However, memorable scenes is all that Mickey Blue Eyes amounts to. It tries to have a part of it concerned with serious plot, and, unlike Analyze This, fails completely. Not that it matters at all, because this is still summer and still no one really gives a damn.

Hugh Grant does his best with the part but it is highly obvious how awkward he feels, perhaps because his criminal behavior is usually limited to the misdemeanor "Soliciting the services of a prostitute". Jeanne Tripplehorn seems to always be the person pitted against the mob (i.e. The Firm). James Caan does all right, but simply doesn't have the comic gumption to pull his performance off.

The question that both Mickey Blue Eyes and The Thirteenth Floor brought to mind is very simple: is the bizarre becoming the norm? Both of them copied films that went away from the norm, and, as a consequence, ended up as a weak facsimile of the original. The spirit seems to have died somewhere in between.

This serves to prove my theory about Hollywood: that they can only copy. Hollywood has spent years seeing a film, saying "wow, that's innovative", and making copies of it until it becomes a formula. There are originals somewhere, but they are buried so deep in cliche that, by the time we get to The Thirteenth Floor and Mickey Blue Eyes, we are so sick and tired of it that we don't care where it came from and swear off the formula as a whole.

Another prime example comes in the new horror films, which remain conscious of their level of self-insult, but, even in the case of The Blair Witch Project, only serve to follow formulas.

In my review of Message in a Bottle, I pleaded for intelligent characters. In this review, I'm making an honest plea for a new plot. I'm so tired of your formulaic crap, and I'm sure I'm not alone in my gripe and groan.