The only redeeming part of this film was seeing nancy travis naked...she should have done this more often because she looks amazing...she fares way better at this than being a comedian...two stars for two breasts well made and well played...the rest is over done schlock...i also think the names of the characters were demeaning to italians...but in comedy you can get away with anything in the name of good film work...you wish

Came across this the other day on TV and what drew my attention right away was a young Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeiffer and her dreamy eyes and 80s fashion and then you start hearing some 80s music from New Order and it's like okay I'm hooked.But the movie got worse as it went along it seemed.It had some awesome potential but it seemed like the directors intention was to make this movie silly.Don't get me wrong I have nothing against silly but I really think this movie could have been a great smart comedy.This movie is saved somewhat by Michelle, you're drawn by how beautiful she looked in this film while trying to convey trashy gangster wife, and the acting overall in this movie is pretty good, you see lots of generic mobster acting mannerisms that were the style of the time which you sometimes still see till recently in the Sopranos for example. If you're going to into this movie looking for some silly fun and a 80s period piece than you will like it.

In my attempts to catch up with films I did not see during their original theatrical release, I have reached the point of viewing "Married to the Mob", a film that I have heard about, but have never seen until to-day, some 22 years post-release. Was in no hurry to see it, and did not know what to expect. On the VHS cover it was called "...Godfather on laughing gas"...by one reviewer. Well, it was hardly that intense. The comedy in this film is rather subtle for the most part...because this film is not necessarily populated by comedians. But...I was pleasantly surprised. Michelle Pfeiffer gave a pretty good performance as a vulnerable mob wife who is, very deep inside, a decent caring person. Her husband is whacked by a mob boss, who immediately begins to make moves on Pfeiffer, despite the fact that he is married. His wife is a jealous, insecure basket case who would rather see him dead than see him with another woman. Pfeiffer moves away and tries to start all over...but to not much avail. But she does not know that the mob boss is the target of the FBI and other agencies who want to nail him...and at first they wanted to also nail her, until she unknowingly falls for one of the agents who discovers the truth about her innocence. The film has its moments, and I guess there are some funny moments in this piece of celluloid, but not enough to really qualify it as a "comedy". No side-splitting humor, just funny characters and situations that are not fully taken advantage of. Pfeiffer's portrayal is one of the reasons to watch the film...and the jealous wife of the mob boss has to be seen to be believed. Not a bad flick overall, and I did not think I was going to like it at all. But I did like it...mind you, I said "Like"...not "Love". It is a worthwhile watch...and you don't need to be "Married to the Mob" to have a little fun...thank goodness it has not come to that just yet.

A movie sometimes, actually, most of the time, needs a nudge in the right casting direction. For Married to the Mob, we have Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell in two big roles, and others for Matthew Modine and Mercedes Ruehl to sink their teeth into, too. Each actor takes over the role in his or her own way, and makes these characters into well-rounded people. The key for Jonathan Demme is this: people. They're not simply cartoon figures in a farce, but like in a good ol' screwball comedy from the days of Cary Grant, we got a premise and story that begs for actors who are so smart that they can get playing dumb, or just off-kilter or a little deranged. When we see Pfeiffer here, we believe that she's at a crossroads in her life, and she doesn't play it for laughs. Instead, she lets others around her go more over the top. In another story, she would be just as believable as an uncertain widow with a past she'd rather forget.And yes, Dean Stockwell is here in another gob-smackingly good acting gig (he even got an unlikely supporting actor nod for it). There's something about the guy that is just a little creepy, not really his fault, per-say, except that it's something in his eyes, his mannerisms, the way he'll glance at a character he doesn't trust or has something really to say to. He did this perfectly in his one scene in Blue Velvet, and to a more restrained extent in Tucker The Man & His Dream. Here, however, he goes to town as a mob-boss caricature, but he also doesn't do ALL of the heavy lifting. He is still subtle compared to Ruehl's turn as Russo's wife, who has insane jealousy (and rightfully so, perhaps, if not so far as she goes), and is so over the top that she does her best to chew scenery every which way she can.So then, with a good premise, and some fine supporting actors (Alec Baldwin has a few decent moments too), what's the problem? I think, perhaps, Demme wasn't always sure how to take the comedy where it needed to go. The script has the characters playing up behavior, which works well when, for example, Modine's "Mike Smith" is caught in a rock and a hard place in going out on a date with Angela. But other set-pieces sort of fall flat, and the ending is unsatisfying (especially irritating is Demme's decision to put in deleted clips from the film in the end credits, his way of doing 'outtakes'). And some of the dialog is over-cooked, making the actors strain to make it credible consistently.But Married to the Mob is fun within a certain frame of mind. It plays up some clichés like it's going out of style (which is sort of did) and leaves out others, and you may enjoy seeing the actors enjoying themselves in the scenes. It's a lighthearted affair, with touches of appropriate mob violence, and David Byrne of the Talking Heads doing the music!