1001 Movies: Moonstruck

From the Chair of Super Koala, this is Captain Spazzmataz:

This was probably one of the most oddly enjoyable movies I have watched.

I was immediately interested to see this movie after reading that it was about Italian Americans given the fact that Super Koala and I had just talked about them. We are from an Italian American family, and we were discussing what certain factors make them unique and were tossing up story ideas that loosely relate to our family. So upon seeing that this movie was about a family of the same ethnic background, I was excited.

Just about everything portrayed in this movie was very accurate to the way Italian Americans act and live. Every so often Super Koala and I would look at each other and just give a nod implying that we agreed with just about everything that was shown. The only problem that I found was that when the food was placed on the table, people continued to talk, and that isn’t really how it happens. Once the food is out, it gets really quiet until people start to finish up their meals.

The film was oddly enjoyable for many reasons. First off, some of the script wasn’t all that great, especially when it came to Nicolas Cage’s lines, but it sort of worked and just made me giggle. Also, Cher was the leading actress, and she was surprisingly amazing. I loved everything about her character. Furthermore, the fact that everything that happened could totally happen within an Italian American family, and it was just amusing to see the similarity between our family and theirs.

4 stars

Still on the Super Koala Couch:

Olympia Dukakis.  That is all.  Cher was pretty cool, but for real though, Olympia Dukakis.

Anyhow, I very much so agree with Spazzmataz’s review.  This movie was so absurd yet enjoyable.  As Sparhawk pointed out, it feels like a classic comedy for the theater.  Everything gets all crazy and clustered and relationship haphazard and, just when it should all collapse, there is a sudden happy ending.

I can’t believe Nicholas Cage is in this movie.  I had never seen baby Nicholas Cage, and I still don’t like him very much.  But his portrayal here was at least amusing.  I feel like there’s some huge generational joke I’m missing when I watch his performance.  Like, I’m confident a theater full of people would be laughing at all his nonsense, but I am just so confused.  Much like the grandpa in this story.

Excluding Nicholas Cage’s horrible dialogue and delivery, this was a very fun movie.  I’ve never been abundantly fond of romantic comedies, but I appreciated this one.  I actually chuckled.

I was going to give it three stars, but I’d definitely watch it again.  So it’s a four star from me as well.

Butt Total: None, but I did have to look a Nicholas Cage’s weird back tattoo.