My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven is okay. The acting is serviceable, although never did I believe that Steve Martin was an Italian Mob guy. I didn't find it particularly funny; I laughed two times and those were more out of shock. The plot, which Wikipedia tells me is vaguely based on the same guy who inspired Goodfellas, isn't exactly a new or unique idea, but it has some potential as both a fish out of water and an odd couple story. My Blue Heaven is fine; there isn't anything terrible, nothing drew me out of the film (except Steve Martin's casting and the choice to use title cards to occasionally change perspective), and I never was confused or disappointed with the story beats, but I was never impressed or fully invested. I picked this movie at random and didn't know what I was watching until the title appeared. I was excited to see that I was going to see a movie with Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joan Cusack, but they are all misused and easily could have been replaced with any other B-list actor. Again, it's fine. It's okay. I didn't dislike it, but there are plenty of better movies to have given that hour and a half to.

"My Blue Heaven" is a nondescript film of no consequence which has too many plotlines threaded together with none of them being properly explored simply because we are too preoccupied watching the cast dancing and having fun. Now, this might indeed be considered entertaining by some, but it also seems like completely unnecessary padding just to fill out an insubstancial story of desperately limited means. The film is really in need of a strong central focus instead of a series of ideas it can't really be bothered to do anything with. The only one of these ideas which is brought to a satisfactory conclusion is the baseball field Vinnie has built for the children. This is a delightfully cute idea, but it is hardly enough to sustain an entire film and surely what we have here is ample proof of that.