amy heckerling second film johnny dangerously be a parody of 1930 gangster film make in the warner brother tradition . michael keaton star a a middle age gangster look back at his life of hard knock when he catch a kid try to steal something from his pet store in 1935. keaton mother ( maureen stapleton ) have continue health problem and so keaton fall into crime at an early age via peter boyle . meanwhile and the fargan richard dimitri play a rival crime lord to boyle and keaton eventually rise through the rank . joe piscopo have a hilarious turn a danny vermin and yeah that right and vermin . griffin dunne be keaton young brother turn district attorney and glynnis oconnor his wife and and marilu henner play keaton moll . the film look notoriously cheap and make it seem like a television show instead of a theatrical film . the film start out great and then slow down as expect after the first half hour . due to the combination of dialog and gag and the film hold it own for the first half and but then it rapidly lose steam and descend into mediocrity and vulgarity in the second half . keaton chew the scenery do his best james cagney impression . stapleton have several vulgar line that be only obnoxious and not funny . piscopo do the once bit one time too many . several support actor try to hold up the fort like danny devito and dom deluise and ray walston a a street vendor and alan hale and jr. a a desk sergeant and and sudie bond a an unscrupulous cleaning lady . the second half evolve into a hit or miss television show type tone and never recovers . the closing scene utilize the roaring twenty be an anachronism a be the call of the wild clark gable film see on a marquee earlier in the film . i think heckerling should have know well and since the targeted audience would certainly be aware of the roar twenty actual 1939 release date . half of 4 star .