{"id":51794,"date":"2026-02-21T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=51794"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:53:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:53:00","slug":"lookin-italian-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/21\/lookin-italian-1994\/","title":{"rendered":"Lookin’ Italian [1994] [Severin Films]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A reformed mafioso has to try to keep his wayward nephew, pre-Friends Matt LeBlanc, out of trouble in Guy Magar’s 1994 drama Lookin’ Italian.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Film<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always interesting to see the Before They Were Famous work. In the Friends edition, we have Jennifer Aniston<\/a> in Leprechaun<\/a>, Lisa Kudrow<\/a> in The Unborn, and Courtney Cox<\/a> in Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark video (directed by Brian DePalma!<\/a>), for example. For Matt LeBlanc<\/a>, just six months before Friends, he starred in the drama Lookin\u2019 Italian, written and directed by Guy Magar; rescued from obscurity (it was never released in the States) by Severin Films<\/a> in a new Blu-ray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Matt LeBlanc plays a lazy, shiftless family member of some mob folks, sent to live with his uncle Vinnie, perennial TV guest star Jay Acovone, who has left the trouble of NYC after an accident. The goal is to keep him chill and away, but his penchant is to get in trouble. His womanizing across LA eventually makes an enemy, and violence erupts, and family histories come through. It\u2019s a solid little crime drama (with some comedy), although it’s a little unfocused in terms of where it wants to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

LeBlanc is rather good, very charismatic. LeBlanc has that quality that feels something big is around the corner (too bad he was pretty much typecast in Joey-like roles after that, including ape-movie Ed early in the run, but at least got piles of cash to weep into).\u00a0 Except when hitting strong emotion, the big moments don\u2019t work for anyone, and the big emotional lines are a little off and hilariously on the nose, which undercuts the drama, becoming overdone melodrama. But he\u2019s trying really hard; crying is a very difficult thing to pull off. And he\u2019s fantastic in the rest of it. Acovone is more of the lead, and he does great work as the retired gangster, troubled by his past. Kudos to musician Lou Rawls for a notable performance as well. Denise Richards even gets an early credit (a lot of TV, and National Lampoon\u2019s Loaded Weapon 1 preceded; Tammy and the T. rex<\/a> was next).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lookin\u2019 Italian feels like a personal project after a series of horror films in Retribution and Stepfather III, for all the highs and lows that come from it. Each scene is well developed, written, and acted, mostly with some exceptions as noted above. There\u2019s strong chemistry between LeBlanc and Acovone. The scenes are dramatic when they need to be, funny when going that way, well-done action for a few sequences, and have a strong pace within. But that\u2019s also the issue. There\u2019s a tonal inconsistency in where the film his heading. Heck, I wasn\u2019t sure where it was going overall until a sudden turn. Magar is making a self-described homage to Scorsese, a noticeable connection, but it\u2019s not really a Mafia flick; they\u2019re there, but this isn\u2019t a riff on Goodfellas. I liked that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Magar did all this for less than a million bucks. That\u2019s something. Magar gives it a great look, full of noir touches of darkness and shadow. The sort of look that looks good sometimes and others makes me say \u201cdammit, just turn on a light.\u201d luckily Lookin\u2019 Italian follows the right path, giving a strong feeling. Magar gets most of the money<\/span><\/p>\n

Lookin’ Italian is a solid but flawed little flick with an early go from LeBlanc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Package<\/strong><\/p>\n

Severin presents Lookin\u2019 Italian on a single Blu-Ray, with the title, a gun, and a few bullet holes on the disc. The single-sided sleeve features a poster on one side and normal info on the back. The disc is region-free.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Presentation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like American Yakuza<\/a>, Lookin\u2019 Italian has that semi-noir dark 90s look. And it translates well with a great transfer with deep darks and bright when it needs to be. I saw minor grain. A damned good look. Audio is English with English subtitles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Features<\/strong><\/p>\n

Severin puts together a solid state of extras. One is newly produced to this release, the remainder are technically archival from 1993 (on set) and 1994 (Film Festival), but new to any viewer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Directin\u2019 Italian Director interview<\/span> (New)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Guy Magar looks at his career, the film itself, and the time since. A nice little chat. <\/span>(13m)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Archival Interviews<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Guy Magar (13m), Jay Acevodo (10m), Matt LeBlanc (11m), Stephanie Richards (8m)<\/span><\/p>\n

Lou Rawls (7m) John LaMotta (10m) (BTW, he\u2019s Raging Bull Jake LaMotta\u2019s cousin!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Quick and fun on-set interviews. Seemed like they were asked the same questions – how Lookin\u2019 Italian are they, their careers, the approach to their characters, and what they like about the film. Not quite EPK, a little more casual. Rather enjoyable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palm Springs Q&A and more <\/span>(1994)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A post-film Q&A with folks giving it a lot of love (especially some older guy who claimed to be the best movie of all time). As someone who attends many festivals (SIFF 4 Life!) I get it, it\u2019s a fun event. Followed by the folks hanging out and joking around. Interesting fly on the wall. (20m)<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside Edition\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(1994)<\/span><\/p>\n

A strange little slice of the 90s. Airing after Friends exploded, it says so often, \u201cno distributor will buy this film, so no one has seen it,\u201d that it becomes weirdly mean. (4m)<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind-the-scenes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nothin\u2019 going really. Just watching some of the scenes being filmed. (4m)<\/span><\/p>\n

Gag reel\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some funny stuff, but they definitely found it funnier than I did. (13m)<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lookin\u2019 Italian is a fine little film, not without its issues, but impressive enough with an earlier role for a now famous guy- some cocktail trivia for you -and making something notable from a tiny budget. A good collection of extras gives some thought to the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reformed mafioso has to try to keep his wayward nephew, pre-Friends Matt LeBlanc, out of trouble in Guy Magar’s 1994 drama Lookin’ Italian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[219,302],"class_list":["post-51794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51801,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51794\/revisions\/51801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}