The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 220 Days to go: 220
Movie #157: Johnny Dangerously
Swear to God, if you haven’t seen Johnny Dangerously, just what, exactly, are you doing with your life? Once again, Amy Heckerling proves herself a skilled comedy director and gets almost no credit or cachet out of it. Why isn’t she given more projects? I mean, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless are considered iconic films of their generations. And while Johnny Dangerously isn’t that, it is the single-best film ever made entirely out of puns and silly gags.
Fun fact: Marilu Henner (Lil Sheridan) still knows all the words and choreography to “Dangerously.”
Michael Keaton plays the lead, a good Irish kid named Johnny Kelly who gets caught up in a life of crime with the Jocko Dundee (Peter Boyle) gang in order to pay for his mother’s mounting medical bills. Ma Kelly (Maureen Stapleton) is an older-than-she-looks 29-year-old, living the hard life of an immigrant widow (her husband Killer Kelly having gotten the electric chair some years before). She’s constantly in need of surgeries to locate her thyroid or unblock her salivary glands, and Johnny will do anything to pay for them. He also adores his kid brother Tommy (Griffin Dunne) and pays for his way through law school, only to find out his brother wants to be District Attorney and fight crime.
Fun fact: Marilu Henner remembers the names and faces of every single person she met making this film in 1984.
There are so many silly little things in this movie, it’s almost impossible to highlight all the ones I love. Tommy’s desperate need to hump his brains out with Sally (Glynnis O’Connor), is a good one, mostly for his mother’s “ba-BOOM ba-BOOM ba-BOOM” and Johnny’s informational film, “Your Testicles and You.” Then there’s the game show presentation by D.A. Burr (Danny DeVito), tempting Tommy to Play Ball, followed by the speeding up of the song on the radio as Tommy’s car brakes fail, followed by Johnny getting invited by Burr to two weeks in Puerto Rico before the newspaper headline “D.A. Burr Dies in Commercial.” Then, of course, there’s gangster bad boy Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo) who carries an 88 Magnum, has it out for the Kelly boys and whose father hung him on a hook once. Once! But far and away the best is Richard Dimitri as gangland nemesis Roman Moronie, a fargin icehole corksoaking bastidge if ever there was one.
Fun fact: Marilu Henner can tell you exactly how many takes it took for Johnny to stick a business card in her boob pocket or for Danny to drop her from his lap.
There’s so much more, though. Jocko thinking his “dork” has been blown off, Ma Kelly thinking of taking up smoking and the ashtray present that clinches it, Polly the parrot wearing jailhouse stripes as he passes a message along the grapevine to Johnny, and oh, the shelf paper! It’s just filled to the brim and overflowing with jokes.
Fun fact: Marilu Henner can still give the exact details of the fit and feel of every costume she wore for the film, including fly fisherman and nun disguises.
A really smart joke is a great thing (something I love, in fact), but to make a super funny movie, the best plan of action is to make the most jokes. The more jokes you can cram into something, the funnier it’s going to be. Some will land better than others, some will be dumber than others, but by giving your audience no chance to breathe from one joke to the next is the absolute best way to keep them laughing. And that’s something Johnny Dangerously is great at. Plus, it has a moral: “Crime doesn’t pay. Well, it pays a little.”
Fun fact: Marilu Henner still knows precisely how Michael Keaton kisses.
Viable Option 