Big Night (1996) review

Another homage to Beckett's Waiting for Godot - this time the 'Godot' is Louis Prima, and the reason everyone's waiting for him is that his presence might help make Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub's authentic Italian restaurant more money. The movie is built up to present 'the' meal of meals, a multiple course feast for the guests, but there is little else to the picture itself - the Tucci character philanders with multiple women and the hard-nosed Shalhoub character gets angry at just the right times, all to add artificial substance to a picture that needs something to keep it going. What should have been a light comedy became tedious drama.