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Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Dangerously

Comedy · Crime · 1984

An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

Movie details

Johnny Dangerously

“Organized crime has never been this disorganized!”

1984 Comedy · Crime 1h 30m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.5 / 10

16.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

44 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

54 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Johnny Dangerously?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Bandits

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Analyze This

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Countless wiseguy films are spoofed in this film that centers on the neuroses and angst of a powerful Mafia racketeer who suffers from panic attacks. When Paul Vitti needs help dealing with his role in the "family," unlucky shrink Dr. Ben Sobel is given just days to resolve Vitti's emotional crisis and turn him into a happy, well-adjusted gangster.

Welcome to Collinwood

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Five hapless inner-city low-lifes attempt to burgle a pawnbroker's safe, but end up being plagued by bad luck.

Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane

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After Dick Harper loses his job at Globodyne in an Enron-esque collapse, he and his wife, Jane, turn to crime in order to handle the massive debt they now face. Two intelligent people, Dick and Jane actually get pretty good at robbing people and even enjoy it -- but they have second thoughts when they're reminded that crime can hurt innocent people. When the couple hears that Globodyne boss Jack McCallister actually swindled the company, they plot revenge.

Tough Guys

Tough Guys

Comedy · 1986

Harry Doyle and Archie Lang are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom. and soon realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt.

The Comeback Trail

The Comeback Trail

Comedy · 2020

Two movie producers who owe money to the mob set up their aging movie star for an insurance scam to try and save themselves. But they wind up getting more than they ever imagined.

The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers

Comedy · 2004

An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a band in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord – a sharp old woman.

The Phoenician Scheme

The Phoenician Scheme

Comedy · 2025

Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.

The Cheap Detective

The Cheap Detective

Comedy · 1978

A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.

The Thursday Murder Club

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Comedy · 2025

A group of senior sleuths passionate about solving cold cases get plunged into a real-life murder mystery in this comic crime caper.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Amy Heckerling

Written by

Harry Colomby · Jeff Harris · Norman Steinberg · Bernie Kukoff

Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton

Johnny Dangerously

Joe Piscopo

Joe Piscopo

Vermin

Marilu Henner

Marilu Henner

Lil

Maureen Stapleton

Maureen Stapleton

Mom

Peter Boyle

Peter Boyle

Dundee

Griffin Dunne

Griffin Dunne

Tommy

Glynnis O'Connor

Glynnis O'Connor

Sally

Court is in session

Put Johnny Dangerously on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Prestige Tourist

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.