Gangster per gioco

Firstly I'm a huge 'Jerky Boy's' fan and their hilarious recordings (both on tape and CD), are historical; featuring the finest ever phone pranks. A film like this can never work because all of the once spontaneous jokes are staged, thus loses the whole point. The story is pretty weak to but on the plus side you do get to see them in person and contains some truly brilliant bands on the soundtrack ('Superchunk', 'House of Pain' and 'Helmet' etc). Also with the great acting talents of Alan Arkin but still falling way short of the real thing.

This was bottom of the barrel cinema when it came out. Its not anything you should really have high expectations for when you start into it. That being said, compared to the bottom of the comedy barrel these days this movie is a worthwhile and entertaining entry.

The supporting cast actually isn't too bad. Other reviewers have questioned the appearance of Alan Arkin in this film, and maybe it is weird, but whatever he's in it. So is Vincent Pastore ("Big Pussy" Bonpensiero from "The Sopranos") and cameos from Tom Jones and Ozzy Osbourne (a particularly rare depiction of him when he still had some vital essence left and decked out in appropriate mid-90's high fashion.)

Speaking of the the mid-90's, there's a lot of great footage of New York City in the years right before Giulianni started cleaning the place up.

Anyways, the movie is funny. Its not the funniest movie ever, but the ad hominem attacks, creative profanity, and silly voices will make you laugh. Its nice to see their skits made into live action, even though the real genius of their humor on their tapes was that the calls were real and the calls in the movie are scripted.

Its a solid B-grade comedy. If you're expecting more, you have the wrong idea.

The Jerky Boys first audio tape was a huge success, and I enjoyed many hours of laughs from it. The second audio tape wasn't as funny, but still had some great jokes, and I never listened to any more after that. But I saw the movie on video, and it couldn't measure up. Just the same jokes from the first tape, only not quite as funny. And the token plot wouldve been better off just showing them make the calls. Alan Arkin as a mafioso was an amusing touch, following his psychiatrist from Grosse Point Blank. Everyone I know who saw this film thought it was mediocre, but the ones who never heard the tapes before thought it was somewhat funny, while fans of the Jerky Boys expected a whole lot more. Now Johnny and Kamal's 15 minutes of fame together are up, but at least they had a good run.

This movie will go down in history as an all time classic. I place it in the realms of Cheech and Chong and the Blues Brothers. Not many Guys could pull off making crank calls into a Big-screen comedy. Fast paced action and wacky impressions make this movie a winner. Even though it was a box office flop I bet video rentals more than made up for poor ticket sales. This is a stay home, 12 pack type of flick.

Johnny Brennan and Kamal play themselves as a pair of prank callers who find themselves crossing wires with the mob. This is not one of the greatest films of 1995, but not very bad. More than half the pranks are based on their popular albums. If you're a true fan of "The Jerky Boys," you might enjoy this film. Personally, I like the albums better. Later, tough guy! My evaluation: ** out of ****.