Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 22, 2026

It's quite possible that had a little show called Friends not come along, few if any would have ever heard of Lookin' Italian, and in fact even in the wake of that long running series, it's quite possible diehard fans of the comedy aren't aware the Matt LeBlanc's official first appearance in a feature film was in this property. As a kind of funny archival clip from Inside Edition (with Deborah Norville) included on this disc as a supplement gets into, the seemingly instant fame of the entire cast of Friends suddenly thrust the (then) rather recently completed Lookin' Italian into whatever spotlight it frankly hadn't been able to muster when it had what was evidently its only true theatrical exhibition at the Palm Springs Film Festival in early 1994, a few months before Friends debuted on NBC.

Writer and director Guy Magar is also on hand in what looks like a newly recorded interview where he states LeBlanc was evidently on the verge of giving up acting and returning to Boston when a friend of Magar's brought LeBlanc in to read for the role of Anthony Manetti, apparently after a who's who of better known actors had auditioned. Suffice it to say, something clicked between Magar, LeBlanc and star Jay Acovone, who portrays Anthony's uncle Vinny Pallazzo, a former Mafioso who has been trying to rebuild his life outside of "the family" working at a used bookstore in Los Angeles. The bulk of the narrative here is the relationship between the visiting Anthony and Jay, especially once Anthony starts poking his nose into the (pun unavoidable) "family" business.

Magar overtly states in his interview that he wanted Lookin' Italian to be an homage of sorts to Martin Scorsese, but Magar simply doesn't have the writing or directorial chops that typically attend Scorsese films. And in fact tonally it might be offered that this film wants to ping pong between the crime syndicate content of GoodFellas with more comedic elements like those seen in After Hours and/or The King of Comedy. It's an uneasy mix at best, though LeBlanc is quite effective in a role that virtually demands a hyperbolic approach. The film does offer a nice supporting role for the late, great Lou Rawls, which may attract a certain demographic beyond LeBlanc's fan base.

Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lookin' Italian is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states this was "scanned in 4K from the original camera negative". Somewhat hilariously, Magar in his interview states he budgeted the film at $350,000, whereas Deborah Norville breathlessly announces a 1 million dollar budget during the Inside Edition clip, but one way or the other this was a low budget indie affair and the look of the film definitely shows it. There's an appropriate grittiness to a lot of the presentation that does in fact tend to echo some of Scorsese's location work on what might be jokingly referred to as the Mean Streets of various urban locales, and Magar does a rather good job of documenting a haggard side of Los Angeles that probably wasn't as evident to pre-Covid eyes. That said, the surplus of dimly lit or downright dark scenes throughout leads to observably wide variances in grain and similar ebbs and flows of detail levels. A lot of the presentation looked a bit on the brown side to my eyes, but generally speaking the palette is healthy and is one of this transfer's better properties. Parsing some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review may give at least some idea of the differences in appearance (contrast the relative roughness of screenshot 8 with some of the others for just one example).

Note: For what it's worth, I had no problem playing this disc in any of my standalone players, but it simply would not load in my PC drive, which may indicate some kind of authoring bugaboo.

Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lookin' Italian features a serviceable DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that definitely has at least moments of explosive energy, as in the shootout which opens the film and which is recurrently referenced in a number of flashbacks haunting focal character Vinny. Jeff Beal's score sounds vibrant, even if I personally wasn't especially blown away by his scoring choices. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Directin' Italian (HD; 12:56) is an enjoyable interview with Guy Magar.


• Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew

Guy Magar (HD; 12:35)




Jay Acovone (HD; 10:12)




Matt LeBlanc (HD; 11:03)




Stephanie Richards (HD; 7:37)




Lou Rawls (HD; 6:54)




John LaMotta (HD; 10:32)

• Q & A with Writer / Producer / Director Guy Magar and Actors Jay Acovone, Matt LeBlanc, Stephanie Richards and Ralph Manza (HD; 20:04) was evidently videotaped on the fly at the Palm Springs Film Festival.


• Inside Edition Exclusive Look (HD; 3:56)


• Behind the Scenes (HD; 3:53)


• Gag Reel (HD; 12:59)


• Trailer (HD; 1:56)

Notes: All of the archival material is high definition in name only and was apparently sourced from pretty shoddy looking videotapes. The interviews above do have a Play All option.

Lookin' Italian Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly think Lookin' Italian might have worked better as an unrepentant comedy, especially since LeBlanc's seemingly genetic propensity toward goofiness pokes through even here in more dramatic moments. The film still provides a great early showcase for the actor, even if he's frequently "turned up to 11", so to speak. Technical merits are generally solid and Severin has assembled some really appealing supplements, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.