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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

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

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

Bandits

Comedy · 2001

After escaping from prison, Joe and Terry go on a crime spree, robbing banks through Oregon and California in order to finance their scheme for a new life south of the border. Unfortunately, things get more complicated when they meet Kate, who runs into them with her car. She joins the bandits on their cross-country spree, and eventually she steals something, too: their hearts.

Oscar

Oscar

Comedy · 1991

Angelo "Snaps" Provolone made his dying father a promise on his deathbed: he would leave the world of crime and become an honest businessman. Despite having no experience in making money in a legal fashion, Snaps sets about to keep his promise.

Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane

Comedy · 2005

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.

Analyze This

Analyze This

Comedy · 1999

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.

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.

Nuns on the Run

Nuns on the Run

Comedy · 1990

Set up by their boss to be knocked off following a final heist, soon-to-retire crooks Brian Hope and Charlie McManus get wind of their impending demise and run off with the spoils of their crime. Fleeing their boss, the drug dealers they robbed, the police, and Brian's angry girlfriend, the duo take refuge in a training convent for nuns. In disguise, they convince Sister Superior that they're nuns, a charade they're forced to maintain as their enemies arrive.

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.

Get Shorty

Get Shorty

Comedy · 1995

Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent to L.A. to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.

The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club

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.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Comedy · 1996

When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with his gang-banging cousin Loc Dog, who along with the requisite pistols and Uzi carries a thermo-nuclear warhead for self-defense. Will Ashtray be able to keep living the straight life?

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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.