Love Is All There Is

source: Love Is All There Is

I love the cast of this film which reads like a great party. Real-life couple Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna adapts Romeo and Juliet to contemporary Italian families living on City Island in the Bronx. They filmed this film mostly on location. It's worth noting that Angelina Jolie makes her debut as well. Taylor plays a psychic while Bologna plays the Rosario's father who runs a wedding hall on the island. His wife is played by the wonderful Lainie Kazan who seeks spiritual assistance with Mona played by Taylor. Joy Behar also has a small role in this film as one of the Italian wives and mothers. The movie is set around July 4 where the local play is Romeo and Juliet. A mishap causes the original Juliet to lose the role. Then comes Jolie's Regina into the role. Regina and Rosario fall in love as quickly as Romeo and Juliet but it doesn't end badly. Paul Sorvino and Barbara Carrera play Regina's parents who also own a wedding hall.

The movie itself made me want to go and call someone so they could enjoy it too. It was extremely funny. Angelena Jolie was wonderful as Juliet. The parents are hilarious.They are caterers as well as enemies.The kids play the parts of Romeo and Juliet in the church play.They fall in love and their parents try to keep them apart.(Spoiler Ahead. I think) They sneak off after a party and do it. Surprisingly they still want to get married in the end of the movie. If you don't like stereotypes and the defilement of classic literature don't watch. If you don't mind those you will have a blast watching this one.

This truly funny movie has a zany cast of characters, just about every voluptuous middle-aged female in Hollywood, and a touching, funny love story. The Capomezza's and the Malacici's are rival caterers in an Italian neighborhood in New York. They are also at opposite--extreme--ends of the taste scale. Their children are cast in the lead roles of a church production of Romeo and Juliet. Naturally, they fall in love. On stage! The mayhem and confusion that this causes, as the parents feud with each other and their kids, is played out for us against the backdrop of the Capomezza's magnificently tasteless home, and their magnificently tasteless catered weddings. Besides the four over-the-top parents and the charming young lovers, the characters include a vaguely wise priest, a plain-speaking grandma, a lady who waves a wand and passes on spiritual advice she receives from a medium called The Blessed Roscoe, a motel with beds shaped like the back seat of a car, and two doves. There is not a sight gag or a punch line that doesn't click in this fast paced movie. Even the family names of the two families are part of the fun. "Capomezza" could be interpreted as "low-brows," and "Malacici" could mean "stuck-up snobs." If you are sensitive about Italian stereotypes, you may not like this movie. If Bette Midler embarrasses you, you may not like it, because all of the women in this movie make Bette Midler look like Martha Stewart. The rest of us should love it!

I liked this movie. The unreality of it all is what makes it entertaining. The cast is interesting. The portrayal of the Italian-American wedding is hilarious. Angelina Jolie is billed as "Introducing Angelina Jolie" ........ you are treated to a young, innocent Angelina. Connie Stevens is unrecognizable and I only knew she was a cast member when I viewed the credits. Paul Sorvino has a chance to show some operatic talent which is impressive. The array of food makes you hungry and the events are so unbelievable they make you laugh. I feel fortunate that I was able to find this movie on DVD and could add it to my collection for a very reasonable price. If you are Italian-American or even plain old American, this movie has something to offer.

First off, let me say I have wanted to see this movie for about a year now because I knew Angelina Jolie was in it and I love her. But my love for her has nothing to do with my opinion of the movie. Anyhow, no video stores carried it but low and behold the local library did. I watched it and absolutely loved it. Yes there were Italian stereotypes but it was done well and funny. It was not degrading in any way. Every actor and actress did a superb job. I laughed very hard at the sexual humor. Overall, I think this movie is well worth seeing if you can find it. It is adorable and just plain fun to watch. I rarely rank movies as a 10 but I give this one a 10!!! Go find it and watch it!

The great Paul Sorvino plays a well-bred man who is pained to be forced to socialize with the low-class and vulgar Lainie Kazan and Joe Bologna, but his incredulous and exasperated expressions may just be his own response to finding himself in this movie. A grandmother sees her grandson play Romeo in his high school production of "Romeo and Juliet" and remarks appreciatively upon the ample size of his genitals. Twice. That is the level of humor in this film. Your move.

Well, TiVo recorded this because of Angelina Jolie. It had 2.5 stars. It seemed promising. It went downhill fast. There is much overacting, even from Angelina. She's about 20 and playing a 16 year old. There are three characters that are supposed to be Italian. Everyone else is Italian- American. The native Italian accents were good, I thought. The young male lead is cute, my wife says. Everyone else in this movie is a fat Italian woman. Even the men. I should have known that when Dick Van Patten was cast as a randy doctor, that that was a bad sign. The two couples chasing their kids around are like the four Italian Stooges. My wife would not let go of the remote. Hopefully she was not taking makeup, clothing or decorating tips. It was a sick and twisted combination of hideous and garish. It was hidegarishous. Cutting off my left ventricle was not sufficient to distract from the pain of watching this movie. If this movie shows up on your TV, do yourself a favor and ram your head through the TV screen instead. You'll be glad you did. The only movie I've ever seen that was worse than this was "Hamburger: The Movie". Or maybe "Deadly Friend".

Correct, this is not a very good movie. I saw it for only one reason, to see a young and not-yet known Angeline Jolie. She is the only thing worth watching here, and her screen time is way too short. The best thing one can take away from this movie is how well-established actors, like Bologna and Sorvino, hardly ever are good at writing scripts and making movies. This one focuses primarily on the older actors with top billing, but the whole thing is an unfunny farce that with the loud dialog and broad gestures would come off better as a live stage play. It borrows greatly from the 'Romeo and Juliet' story but set in modern times in the Bronx section known as City Island. One family is the largest caterer in the area, the other sets up as the most elegant caterer. Their ancestry represents different Italian classes. The local high school is putting on 'Romeo and Juliet', the son of the working class family plays Romeo, the daughter of the upper crust family plays Juliet. Both are 16 (both actually about 20 during filming) and fall madly in love. But they are too young, and she is scheduled to return to Paris for her education. I became a big fan of Lainie Kazan back in the 1960s when she was a great popular singer on the order of Barbra Streisand, and our first daughter is named Lainie. I enjoyed her here as the Italian mama. Angelina Jolie is of course the young girl, Gina Malacici, and she is very good with her Italian accent. She is clearly the best part of this cast and it would have been a better movie if she had been featured more. Nathaniel Marston was her Romeo as Rosario Capomezzo . He wasn't particularly good but got the job done.

A delightfully unpretentious send up of Romeo and Juliet. Approach with no expectations other than having a good time and you will enjoy this one. A talented group of comic actors let go and have a riot in this light-hearted performers' vehicle. Bad reviews were due to a snobbishness about treatments of Shakespeare. Some people feel that all film must be "important" ---If you share those views, don't bother. The credits read "introducing" Angelina Jolie, which is not even close to being true, but she is astoundingly beautiful as the Juliet character, and, as always, her acting is wonderful--- and, considering her age at the time, even her dialect is pretty good. Recreating this classic tale with feuding Italian families in the catering business in New York results in great fun. See it in the right frame of mind and you will laugh out loud.