Corky Romano

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

The Mafia's real-world influence must be steadily fading, for the glory days of Godfather are gone, replaced by deconstructions and parodies, jokey movies in which The Family is fodder for laughs. TV series The Sopranos and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog occupy the critically acclaimed end of this trend, while Corky Romano sneaks in on the forgettable bottom edge.

Corky (Chris Kattan) is a spineless veterinarian whose special talent lies in dropping things and walking into stationary objects. Poor Corky has been more or less disowned by his Mob family, but is contacted when his ill father (Peter Falk) falls under a serious F.B.I. investigation. Corky's thug brothers (one's a closeted homosexual and the other's illiterate; it's that kind of movie) can't manage the family and need Corky's anonymity to infiltrate the F.B.I. and destroy all incriminating evidence. The hapless klutz stumbles into some success with the Feds—making friends, cultivating possible romance, feeling accepted—but mostly he just stumbles.

Chris Kattan has demonstrated flashes of brilliance on Saturday Night Live as Mango, the simian male dancer who drives everybody crazy. But this role fits him poorly, and the other actors make even less of an impression.