Big Deal on Madonna Street: 20 Years Later

A big deal? Not really, especially if you haven't seen Mario Monicelli's original 1958 film, which is a classic spoof of heist films. Of course, considering this sequel's attitudes toward women and men who might be "different," it might as well still be 1958—but no, it's two decades later and the hapless Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni, always worth watching, even in drag) is out of prison after serving time for the last botched “big deal.” Tiberio is determined to stay away from his old crony, Peppe "The Panther" (Vittorio Gassman), but after being tossed out by his wife's lover—in addition to other bad breaks—Tiberio is sucked back in to crime with a new get-rich scheme. Incorporating clips from the original film that fail to recapture the magic out of context, 1987's Big Deal on Madonna Street: 20 Years Later finds Marcello straining mightily to carry the sequel, but Amanzio Todini's film lumbers when it should be fleet-footed like its predecessor. Presented with a so-so transfer on an extra-less disc (except for the trailer), this is not a necessary purchase. (D. Liebenson)