Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
ActuallyGlimmer
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
gabrielkoot
This is a fun and oddball comedy from the early seventies. Two gangs go to war and the smaller gang uses a lion to shake down people living in the other gang's territory. The police have to intervene and one of the gangs ends up without a boss. It's wacky, crazy fun even though it's not a great film by any means. It's strange to see a young Jerry Orbach (Law and Order) in this comedy.
Ed-Shullivan
I always want to see a movie that has Robert DeNiro starring in it, so seeing him play Mario an imported Italian bicycle racer who will steal anything even if it is nailed down, was unique. This movie was made in 1971 when Mr. DeNiro was very hungry for lead roles so you can't blame him for the movie's poor content and flow. The movie evolves around a band of goofy dressed Italian mobsters led by Jerry Orbach as Kid Sully who spoof the Mafioso, and Kid Sully's Big Momma (the Godmother figure) is played by a convincing Jo Van Fleet. She certainly nailed her part and blends sweetness with ripe viciousness. There were some smaller parts for good actors such as Burt Young, as Willie Quarqulo the bomb maker, Jack Kehoe as a scared bartender assigned to spike two of the rival gang's drinks, and Lionel Stander as the made man Baccala. I guess the animal rights groups made pictures like this a target for changing the times, as the poor lion was mistreated in front of the camera by a few of the actors, including a scene which shows the fully grown lion shackled to the conveyor belt in a car wash and forced to go through the car wash even if it was just with sprayed water. The lion appears in quite a few scenes and does some stunts that needed a great Animal Trainer to handle. I was very surprised that the lion did not receive any acting credit what so ever, nor did the animal trainers. Shame on you MGM.Well I wouldn't roar about this movie, (no pun intended) but it is a victim of the times, and the screenplay could have been a lot stronger even for a mafioso spoof.
mollyshearergabel
I went to see this movie with my mother when it first came out. Now I am waiting for this to come out on DVD because it is one of the few movies that I want to own. When we went to see it in 1971 I laughed so hard I thought I might either pee on myself or vomit. I'd never seen anything so funny…or so familiar. I'm sure that it helped that the action took place primarily in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn, but I believe this movie has something for everyone. The humor didn't seem subtle to me at the time but in light of the brainless fare that has become so popular this movie does require that you actually pay attention from beginning to end. If you get nothing else out of it, the realization that it's not possible to housebreak a lion is worth the price of admission. That and the valuable lessons about car bombs, but to talk about that would require a spoiler alert.
classldy
Very bland so called comedy. Jo Van Fleet irritating as the mother with a fake Italian accent. You could tell this was DeNiro's first works; he seemed unsure of himself and should not be made the butt of the so called jokes.
