Johnny Dangerously (1984) review

Pet store owner Johnny Kelly (Michael Keaton) stops a lad from stealing a puppy and then tells him the "story" of his life (which sounds suspiciously similar to 1934's Manhattan Melodrama), starting with being raised by his dear ol' ma (Maureen Stapleton) in the Lower East Side, taking a job for mob boss Jocko Dundee (Peter Boyle), getting into a gang war with Moronie (Richard Dimitri), falling in love with Lil Sheridan (Marilu Henner) and then having to worry about his lawyer brother Tommy (Griffin Dunne) working in the District Attorney's office.  It's a shame this attempted 'parody' of early American gangster movies is so hit-and-mostly-miss - the timing is entirely off in parts - because there are only a couple of one-liners that land ("It shoots through schools!") and a few sequences that are truly inspired (like the PSA regarding male reproductive anatomy).  Even the supporting cast - Dom DeLuise appears all-too-briefly as the Holy Father, Danny DeVito plays a sneaky politician and Joe Piscopo's a greasy gangster - is stacked, which makes it more of a disappointment: with some tweaks, this could have been a gem from the 1980's ... yet with the missteps it's trapped in the "cult classic" catalog.