Corky Romano

This tired attempt at comedy has no imagination or energy. The script is like a smudgy carbon originally rejected by Jerry Lewis as too dumb and then reworked for Gilbert Gottfried. It isn’t even second rate — it’s more like eighth rate. The biggest tragedy is the way it wastes the talents of people who deserve a lot better, especially its star, Saturday Night Live’s Chris Kattan, and castmates Peter Falk, Richard Roundtree, and Fred Ward.

Kattan plays Corky Romano, the outcast son of a crime family led by his father (Falk) and brothers (Chris Penn and Peter Berg). Corky is the white sheep of a family of black sheep. He is a tender-hearted vetrinarian who thinks his father is in the landscaping business. The FBI has the evidence they need on Pops, thanks to an informant. The family wants to destroy the evidence, so they decide to send someone undercover as an FBI agent. Since Corky is family, they trust him, and since he has had no connection with their operations, the FBI does not know him. They fix him up with a fake ID and a phony resume and send him into FBI headquarters as an agent.

The rest of the movie is the same lame jokes over and over again. And then over and over again again. Corky messes up but somehow it appears that he is a brilliant and fearless agent. People keep calling him by the name the hacker who created his record gave him — “Pissant,” and Corky keeps trying to make them pronounce it as though it were French: “Piss AUNT.” Corky knocks things over and gets beat up. Corky sings to cheesy 80’s music. Corky wears funny outfits. One of Corky’s brothers can’t read and the other doesn’t want anyone to know he’s gay. None of this is very funny the first time, and any humor it might have had is long gone before the movie is done recycling it. It will only appeal to giggly middle-schoolers who find the jokes enjoyably naughty. Let me put it this way. If you find it marvelously witty that the vetrinarian clinic is called “Poodles and Pussies” and that a snake crawls up Corky’s pants and comes out his fly, then you’ll love the rest of the movie.

Parents should know that there is comic violence, including shooting (no one gets hurt) and a lot of fighting. We hear of an offscreen crime in which the victim’s genitals were torn off, and see the flies buzzing above a corpse (played for comedy). A character is tortured by having jumper cables attached to his nipples and then being shocked. A character accidentally inhales cocaine and is supposed to be comically intoxicated. There is some bathroom humor. The FBI has racially diverse agents working well together, but the female agent complains of not being treated equally. There are sexist and anti-gay comments and some very vulgar language.

Families who see this movie should talk about the conflict between loyalty to the family and doing what is right. They might also want to talk about the way that many of the characters are hurt by not feeling loved and appreciated.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy other SNL-star movies like Wayne’s World and a much better crime comedy, Married to the Mob(mature material).