Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

My Blue Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

What's So Funny About ME?

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 24, 2017

My Blue Heaven was released in the same year as Goodfellas, and both films sprang from the same source (unlikely as that may seem). Screenwriter Nora Ephron was married to author Nicholas Pileggi, and while Pileggi was adapting his book about mobster Henry Hill for Martin Scorsese, Ephron was writing a comedy about Hill's life in witness protection after the explosive cut to credits with which Scorsese concluded his gangster epic. Henry Hill's lament at the end of Goodfellas that he's become an average "schnook" feeds directly into Ephron's fantasy about a gangster who rebels against the bland surroundings of his new identity and sets about remodeling suburbia to suit his wiseguy tastes.

My Blue Heaven had a lot going for it, including a well-crafted script by Ephron (When Harry Met Sally . . .), sure-handed direction by Herb Ross (The Sunshine Boys) and a cast filled with comedy veterans led by Steve Martin, who was initially cast in the role of a strait-laced FBI agent. But a last-minute casting change altered the film's trajectory. The character of the turncoat mobster—rechristened "Vinnie Antonelli" for Ephron's tale—was originally set to be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and we can only imagine how the Terminator's signature accent would have adapted to the role of a Brooklyn-born son of Sicily. But Arnold dropped out at the last minute, and Martin stepped into the role to save the project. While Martin is a gifted performer of both comedy (The Jerk) and drama (Leap of Faith), he's woefully miscast as a character for whom flamboyant Italian ethnicity is the core of his identity. The late Robert Pastorelli played a convincing version of Vinnie's character in Eraser, but Martin never seems comfortable in the turncoat's skin. His Vinnie feels no more authentic than the Czechoslovakian "wild and crazy guy" who was one of Martin's recurring routines on Saturday Night Live—and the performance sinks the movie.

As My Blue Heaven opens, Agent Barney Coopersmith (Moranis) is escorting Vinnie Antonelli (Martin) and his brittle wife, Linda (Barbara Rush), to their new home in the quiet town of Fryburg, California, near San Diego. It's a sunny and spotless locale, much like the idealized suburban paradise to which Moranis' Seymour escapes at the end of Little Shop of Horrors (the theatrical verison, that is). Linda hates the place and bolts immediately. Barney, whose job is to ensure Vinnie's attendance at two upcoming trials in New York, is also shortly on his own, abandoned by his sports psychiatrist wife (Colleen Camp), who runs off with one of her jock patients. Although they don't move in together, Vinnie and Barney quickly become a Golden State version of the odd couple, with Barney's compulsive orderliness constantly being undermined by Vinnie's freewheeling lifestyle.

A running joke of My Blue Heaven is Vinnie's refusal to blend into his new surroundings or maintain the low profile that is expected of a man in hiding. Not only doesn't he make any effort to hide his former identity, but he also starts up a new criminal enterprise, staffed by a network of fellow relocated wiseguys led by old pal Johnny Bird (William Hickey, Prizzi's Honor), whom Vinnie finds running a local pet store under his new name, "Billy Sparrow". Vinnie's activities lead to repeated conflicts with a local D.A., Hannah Stubbs (Joan Cusack), from which Barney extricates him each time, to Hannah's growing exasperation. After each sharp-tongued encounter between the FBI agent and the prosecutor, Vinnie encourages Barney to ask her out, and you don't have to be an expert on romantic comedy tropes to see where the relationship is heading. Meanwhile, Vinnie himself becomes the object of giddy desire by Crystal (Melanie Mayron), the redheaded cop who works with Hannah and for whom Vinnie is the most exciting newcomer to Fryburg in, well, forever.

Ephron is a skilled enough writer to have planted crucial narrative seeds that will sprout in the film's third act, including Vinnie's apparent scam raising funds for the local Little League and a trip to New York that results in both a family reunion and an attempted "hit" on Vinnie by his former associates. She adds an entertaining variation on the classic makeover plot, as Vinnie teaches Barney how to dress better, how to meet women and how to dance the merengue. (It's similar to the education that Ryan Gosling gives Steve Carell in Crazy, Stupid Love.) Ross's direction is brisk and efficient, keeping the action moving forward at the lively clip required for effective comedy, and he makes the most of talented supporting players like Carol Kane as a woman who falls into Vinnie's arms in the supermarket and Daniel Stern as the D.A.'s presumptuous ex-husband.

But Martin's Vinnie keeps draining the picture of its comic energy. He's less a portrayal than a sketch character, with the actor performing in quotation marks, as if Vinnie were part of Martin's standup routine. It doesn't help that Martin doesn't look or sound remotely Italian-American, including his accent, which routinely slips, and his fussy pompadour hairdo, which looks like it's been cut and pasted from someone else's head. Put him in a scene with the Brooklyn-born Hickey, who memorably played an aging godfather in Prizzi's Honor, or with Julie Bovasso, who co-starred in Moonstruck and is cast here as Vinnie's slyly emotional mama, and Martin seems utterly out of place in what is supposed to be Vinnie's natural element. A comedy doesn't have be realistic (and they rarely are), but its characters have to be credible within the fictional environment established by the film. Martin's Vinnie never comes close.

Still, My Blue Heaven has its memorable moments, usually featuring actors other than Martin. Moranis manages his transformation from shy wallflower to smooth operator with aplomb, and Cusack displays her customary brilliance as a frazzled working mom to two young boys (Jesse Bradford and Corey Carrier). The sequence at the Hotel Del Coronado, famed locale of Some Like It Hot and The Stunt Man, where Barney and Hannah begin their romance on the dance floor, has an effortless effervescence that the film could have used more of. And Bill Irwin, as Barney's ambitious FBI partner, provides much-needed comic grace notes whenever he appears (which isn't often enough). Irwin, who began his career as a circus clown, is blessed with a rubbery body that seems to defy gravity, and the scene in which his dancing feet surrender to the Latin rhythms of the band playing at the Del Coronado is a sight to behold. Martin may be My Blue Heaven's star, but it's Irwin who's the film's wild and crazy guy.

My Blue Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Blue Heaven was shot by the versatile John Bailey (The Accidental Tourist and Groundhog Day), whose lighting casts a bright and cheerful sheen over the entire affair. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, a recent-vintage interpositive was scanned at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, followed by the usual color-correction and WAC's customary cleanup of dust, wear and damage. My Blue Heaven comes to Blu-ray with a vividly colorful and sharply detailed image that's as upbeat as Vinnie Antonelli's confident swagger. Blacks are solid, primaries are fully saturated, and the fluorescent glow of the nightclub where Vinnie teaches Barney is faithfully rendered. Even the New York courtroom where Vinnie testifies against his former associates looks like a happy place. The resolution of fine detail brings out the stark contrast between's Vinnie's flashy wardrobe and Barney Coopersmith's monochromatic, button-down attire (a style he shares with D.A. Hannah). The California locations used for Fryburg look so inviting that you wonder why everyone doesn't want to live there. WAC has mastered the film at its usual high bitrate, here 34.99 Mbps, with a capable encode.

As far as I have been able to determine, this is the first time that My Blue Heaven has been presented on digital disc in its original aspect ratio. On Warner's 1999 DVD (reissued in 2007), the film was reformatted to 1.33:1.

My Blue Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The stereo track for My Blue Heaven has been taken from the original multi-channel printmaster, cleaned of any age-related defects or deterioration and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. When played through a surround decoder, the cheerful score by Ira Newborn (who scored The Naked Gun series and numerous John Hughes films) expands into the surrounds and creates a pleasingly immersive experience. Otherwise, the mix remains largely front-oriented with the notable exception of a few brief but intense bursts of gunfire that pings back and forth across the room. The English dialogue is clearly rendered, and there's an extended scene in Italian, which is subtitled.

My Blue Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra is a trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:02), which is already more than was offered on Warner's 1999 DVD (reissued in 2007).

My Blue Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like nearly every title released by WAC, My Blue Heaven has its fans, and for them this Blu-ray presentation should be a welcome addition to their collection. Anyone new to the film might want to rent or borrow it first. It's a promising concept, but a problematic execution, hobbled by a miscast central character. But on its technical merits, recommended.