My Blue Heaven (1990)

While it wasn't exactly robbed of Best Picture, My Blue Heaven is a delightful and underrated film. The script by Nora Ephron is simple and entertaining and offers plenty of opportunities for Steve Martin to have fun with his role. It's refreshing to see Martin taking on a goofy character like mobster-with-a-heart-of-gold Vinnie Anotelli amid the countless long-suffering patriarchal roles he filled from the mid-'80s through the '90s, and he's both believable and funny in the part. Also, in perhaps the last example that he's a talented performer, Rick Moranis is a more than capable foil for the scheming and conniving Vinnie. The interaction between the two leads takes up most of the movie and it's that comedic chemistry that makes it so successful. The fact that the movie tanked at the box office could very well be the reason for Moranis' virtual disappearance from anything not about shrinking people and Martin's long string of uninteresting lead roles that followed. Either way, My Blue Heaven didn't deserve the shaft and is more than worthy of another look. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide