My Blue Heaven Review

Whether or not you’re much of a fan of Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies, My Blue Heaven is one of those must download movies for anyone who likes great comedies. Lately she’s fallen into a habit, with movies like Bewitched, of trying to repeat When Harry Met Sally by simply… Remaking it, more or less. It’s always the same old stuff, the same outdated dating jokes that were funnier twenty years ago. But My Blue Heaven shows that, when she wants to be, Nora Ephron can be an incredibly funny writer.

Steve Martin and Rick Moranis star as, respectively, a member of the Italian mafia, and the FBI agent assigned to protect him until he can testify. Martin is shipped to a picturesque small town and, yes, it’s just another fish out of water movie, but it’s very well done this time, very funny, and when it comes down to it, an old, cliche story is fine so long as it’s done properly.

The movie is funny, and that’s what it really comes down to in a comedy. Steve Martin is really at his best here, as is Moranis, and even some jokes that should, by all rights, fall flat, wind up providing some of the biggest laughs of the film. It’s your standard odd couple story, Martin is morally ambiguous, Moranis is uptight, but it works well, these two skilled actors make it feel fresh and new.

It’s very funny watching Martin take over the small town. He meets some of his old buddies, also in the witness protection program, and they all decide to get together and form a sort of mini-mafia of their own. You’d think that watching these guys steal trucks and threaten people in the small town would be scary, but in fact, it’s kind of cute, playful. They have a lot of fun with it and it really does seem like it’s all in the name of having a good time rather than ripping people off.

Even though the movie does get into organized crime, murder and so on, the end result is really a film that is cute, innocent, funny. The violence is never really scary or suspenseful so much as… Well, a shootout provides a fun bonding experience for Martin and Moranis, and another gunfight towards the end of the film provides one of its biggest laughs “I lied, now where was I?”

Another big source of laughs is in watching Martin effortlessly juggle his two girlfriends and wife. Somehow, these three women never find out about each other, and there’s a suspicion that, if they did, he would find a way to talk his way out of it, like always. Martin’s character is a crook, but such a likable, friendly crook, he could steal your wallet and your heart at the same time.

The movie has a really great look to it. The whole point of the film is the contrast between Martin’s violent, urban upbringing, and the small town friendliness and beauty of his new environs, and the cinematography really does the trick. Martin’s new home is really set in a gorgeous land of blue skies and green hills.

It may not be one of the greatest films ever made, but it’s certainly one of Ephron’s best, every bit as funny as When Harry Met Sally, but also focusing on more interesting subject matter than the same old dating jokes that don’t really hold true for anyone out of their mid twenties.

And just like George Costanza and his neurotically-low self-esteem (i.e. Movies Online Many shots are taken in high Earth altitudes while others are from space viewing the landscape and everything around it. Film School is that wonderful island in the middle of an otherwise uphill battle.