eddiespn Came across this the other day on TV and what drew my attention right away was a young Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeiffer and her dreamy eyes and 80s fashion and then you start hearing some 80s music from New Order and it's like okay I'm hooked.But the movie got worse as it went along it seemed.It had some awesome potential but it seemed like the directors intention was to make this movie silly.Don't get me wrong I have nothing against silly but I really think this movie could have been a great smart comedy.This movie is saved somewhat by Michelle, you're drawn by how beautiful she looked in this film while trying to convey trashy gangster wife, and the acting overall in this movie is pretty good, you see lots of generic mobster acting mannerisms that were the style of the time which you sometimes still see till recently in the Sopranos for example. If you're going to into this movie looking for some silly fun and a 80s period piece than you will like it.

jzappa The only problem with Married to the Mob is that it is not funny. It dresses up exactly like a romantic comedy, but almost nothing that happens is funny. But if you can look at it as a film where almost nothing funny happens, then you'll have a really good time. It's a glitzy mob film, too, as per the title. Extremely glitzy. But the director, Jonathan Demme, is one of the few prevailing cult directors who fully and completely embraced the 1980s in his work from that decade rather than understandably pretending it was still the 1970s.The opening credits combine 1980s animation, Italian-Americanism and mise-en-scene lathered on top of each other at once. From there, despite 1980sness, it feels about right. The lighting by Demme's frequent cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and jukebox soundtrack rife with widely varying pop and alternative jams are gaudy and that is indeed controlled and nuanced as part of the atmosphere. Demme is good at colorful instant characterizations in his visual and sometimes seemingly impetuous composition of a fun mix of styles, a plot that could've gone any which way, where a smooth FBI agent, played by a very bland Matthew Modine, trying to infiltrate a mafia family, sees a chance when a gun moll, played with come-hither allure by Michelle Pfeiffer, tries to leave the criminal lifestyle after her trigger-man husband, in just what you would hope for in an Alec Baldwin performance, is wacked.The way it goes works for awhile, because Demme seems to have a firm hand on the wheel. He knows the significance of showing us the very subjective and relatable life-at-home scenes with Pfeiffer, as well as her cares and longings as a morally conflicted mom, although her relationship with son Joey is taken a bit for granted. What mobster's son is listening to party-pooper mom when dad's boss, played with Dean Stockwell's trademark naturalness and by far the scene-stealing stand-out of the cast, is giving him such awesome gifts? On the whole though, Demme's lathered-on stylizations are easily viewed as a novel take on a fun crime thriller tale.Ultimately, though, we find we've been going the wrong way, because inevitably, Modine and Pfeiffer have to fall in love. That's not inherently bad, and every here and there it actually feels bearable, but as a romantic subplot, it is not handled interestingly, or well, hardly at all because it hopscotches across various sundry clichés, which fulfill the initial expectation of a cheesy 1980s date flick, and for that audience, I think it has just the right impact. But for someone who has found themselves genuinely interested in the story and the aesthetic approach, it is a let-down into state of tedium.So it's a decent movie with huge missteps at certain points, but as a date movie or a nostalgic piece for those who grew up in the '80s, perhaps saw a lot of date movies in the '80s, the entertainment value is not as likely to fluctuate, except for said deficit in true laughs. There maybe a few scoffs, and it's very broadly tongue-in-cheek, but I wouldn't leave the comedy aisle with the high hopes with which I'd have initially entered. Whatever the case anyway, there are additional joys in bit roles by great character actors who have by now begun to fade, like Nancy Travis, Joan Cusack and Oliver Platt.

Robert J. Maxwell This isn't bad, considering. That is, considering that it's still ANOTHER comedy thriller about the Mafia. The men lust after each other's wives and girl friends, drive monstrous cars, wear splashy suits and two-toned shoes, are dutifully sad at the funerals of their own victims, have mothers who bawl over them, pack pistols, move everywhere in squads, and are haunted by the FBI. The women are friendly but keep a wary eye on their men. They wear their hair in curly fright wigs, sport rings with stones the size of Plymouth rock, are covered in bangles, and visit the beauty salons daily. Everybody speaks with a working-class New York accent. When, if ever, will this genre run out of steam? When will it dwindle to a palpitating point and vanish for another generation? Alec Baldwin is doing Dean Stockwell's girl friend and when Stockwell finds out he disposes of Baldwin in a spritzbad. Stockwell then contracts a case of the hots for Baldwin's widow, Michelle Pfeiffer, and pursues her even as she tries to escape to a crummy flat in Queens and establish an anonymous existence for herself and her boy. At the same time, Stockwell's wife, Mercedes Ruehl, is having epileptiform seizures over the fancy that Stockwell is doing Pfeiffer. Meanwhile, Mathew Modine is an FBI undercover agent who is bugging Pfeiffer's apartment to get evidence on Stockwell and insinuating himself into her life and -- well, it all leads to a climactic shoot out in one of those giant and thoroughly vulgar Miami hotels with multi-room suites the color of moonstones.It all comes together pretty well. There is no credit for dialog coach, though maybe there should have been. Michelle only blows it once, when she asks Modine if he would like "something to eat." It should have been "sump'n," not "something." Most of the acting credit goes to Mercedes Ruehl as Stockwell's pistol-packing wife. Hers is the most flamboyant performance in a flamboyant role in a flamboyant picture.All the more applause is due to the cast who are not named DeNiro, Pacino, Pesci, DeVito, Spinelli, Liota, Bracco, or Gandolfini. The appointment -- the accents, the gestures, the expressions -- are by now so familiar that they can be easily imitated even by Italian-Americans."'EY -- whadda ya tink, we're all giadruls heah? Fugeddabout it."

Newsense Married To The Mob was one of the first VHS tapes that I had along with Coming To America and Grease. I still have fond memories of this film after all these years. Hell, I still have the VHS of this film in good condition.The story: Undercover cop Mike Downey(Matthew Modine)is sent to spy on Angela De Marco(Michelle Pfeiffer) the wife of the slain mafia member Frank "Cucumber" De Marco(Alec Baldwin). He later falls in love with her after he realizes that she is innocent in all this. Angela not only has to deal with the unwanted advances of mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo(Dean Stockwell), she also has to deal with his jealous wife Connie Russo(Mercedes Ruehl).Married To The Mob is funny and still keeps your interest when its not trying to be funny. I like the little jabs it takes at mafia life(the jealous mafia wife, the mob boss that doesn't realize that he is not a chick magnet etc) and you like the characters of Angela De Marco and Mike Downey. It was the last of the funny phase of Johnathan Demme before he got serious and gave you gems like Philadelphia and Silence Of The Lambs(best thriller of all time). If you're in the mood for comedy, Married To The Mob is a keeper. Its better than the rubbish that passes for comedy nowadays(Epic Movie, Date Movie, Meet The Spartans, Disaster Movie etc).