Product Details

• Actors: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hector Elizondo, Nathan Lane, Kate Nelligan
• Directors: Garry Marshall
• Writers: Terrence McNally
• Producers: Garry Marshall, Alexandra Rose, Charles Mulvehill, Michael Lloyd, Nick Abdo
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• DVD Release Date: December 11, 2001
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005QTAU
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,232 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #18 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Michelle Pfeiffer
  #23 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Directors > Garry Marshall

• For more information about "Frankie & Johnny" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) directs the screen adaptation of Terence McNally's play Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune, the story of a short-order cook (Al Pacino) who drives a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) crazy with his adamant courtship and mixed messages. The film is okay and not much more than that, the major stumbling block being Marshall's failure to scrub away enough star veneer on Pacino and Pfeiffer to accept them as minimum-wage drones with nowhere to go but toward each other. Fortunately, Marshall's feel for the texture offered by supporting players--Hector Elizondo as a café owner, Nathan Lane as Pfeiffer's inevitably gay neighbor-buddy, Kate Nelligan as another lonely waitress--keeps things interesting enough. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

The movie version of Terrence McNally's 1987 play "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" is a sweet-tempered romantic comedy whose main characters are a New York coffee-shop waitress, Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer), and a short-order cook, Johnny (Al Pacino). McNally, adapting his two-character play for the screen, has expanded and drastically rearranged his original story. He and the director, Garry Marshall, have attempted to place Frankie and Johnny in a variety of settings, to stretch the narrative out over a longer period, to surround the lovers with lots of other people-and to incorporate all this extra material without dissipating the emotional tensions of the main characters' relationship. Although the new characters and settings sometimes give the movie the feel of a sitcom, the filmmakers keep the basic principles of romantic comedy in view, and the stars' performances elevate the material. Pacino brings out the comedy and the ambiguity of a middle-aged man's sense of emotional rebirth: he's exuberant, touching, and a little scary. And Pfeiffer is extraordinary; her Frankie is a superbly detailed rendering of a woman with a fanatically conservative heart. The strength of the play was its simplicity and its directness; the movie preserves those qualities by telling the story in the ordinary, straightforward Hollywood manner. This is a vehicle for Pacino and Pfeiffer, and they're more glamorous than the characters they're playing, but, in a weird way, their star power is perfectly appropriate here: it's the meat-and-potatoes stuff of big-budget movie entertainment. Kate Nelligan and Nathan Lane are standouts in a large supporting cast, which also includes Hector Elizondo and Jane Morris. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pfeiffer and Pacino, May 25, 2005

By	Thayer - See all my reviews

This is one of the lesser known and appreciated screen gems of the 90's. It's a superior romantic-comedy-drama which stars screen legend Al Pacino and screen goddess Michelle Pfeiffer. The movie is so much more about the love story. It is a very perceptive movie about people who are lonely and people who are trapped into their own lives. The movie has an achingly melancholic mood.

The casting of Michelle Pfeiffer was controversial at that time because the original role on Broadway was played by Kathy Bates and a lot of people think Pfeiffer was too beautiful for the role. Bates reportedly laughed when she learned hat Pfeiffer got the role. Granted that the reason Pfeifer probably got the role was because at that time she was at the height of her popularity, she was the "it" girl then. But Pfeiffer was phenomenal and proved that she deserved the part. Her beauty was toned down to make her look as ordinary as possible. The character she played has so much depth and layer that is pretty uncommon for films generally regarded as romance films.

Pacino of course was good, this is his and Pfeiffer's second team up after Scarface of course I love the fact that he played the role with such ease and charm which is a lot different from his more serious roles before. The supporting actors Nathan Lane and Kate Nelligan stole some scenes

Of all the movies of Pfeiffer this is one of my all time favorites together with Fabulous Baker Boys, Married to the Mob, One Fine Day, and Batman Returns to name a few. I whole-heartedly recommend this film.

Grade: A-

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Movie Is Better The Second Time Around, July 24, 2004

By	H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Frankie & Johnny [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Thre are a lot of things to like about this movie. The supporting actors to a person are perfectly cast. It's hard not to believe that the director just took over a Greek greasy spoon in New York and used its employees. You can literally smell the grease as the short-order cooks scramble the eggs and bacon. And you can feel the loneliness in the pit of your stomach as these characters go home to their less-than-fine apartments. They are the people Barbara Ehrenreich writes about in NICKEL AND DIMED. Robert Frost would say they have nothing to look backward to with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope. Paul McCartney would call them Eleanor Rigby. Many of them will never rise about their minimum wage-plus tips jobs; yet they show a resilence and endurance and manage to find laughter in their dismal jobs that is heart-warming.

This film has as good a portrayal of gay characters as you are likely to see. Terrence McNally has created here two, believable, likeable gay men who act like real people. There is a quite funny scene when Al Pacino meets the gay couple for the first time and makes all the usual mistakes though well-intentioned-- he didn't realize, you would never know, he just found out that his cousin is gay-- to which Nathan Lane quips that he will check the cousin out in the new listings.

This movie says that a short-order cook (Al Pacino) recently released from prison can find happiness with a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) with broken dreams. That may be a tall challenge, but most of us would like to believe in that possibility. It's all about starting over, taking a chance, tearing down the walls that separate most of us from each other and taking a chance on love.

Michelle Pfeiffer cleans up well and is almost too pretty to be a down-and-out waitress. But then, nobody's perfect.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-see movie with Passion and Romance!, September 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Frankie & Johnny [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer have wonderful chemistry! Pacino plays Johnny, an ex con who just happens to have gotten out of jail. Pfeiffer plays Frankie, a waitress with a really bad romantic history. Johnny meets Frankie when he applies for the short-order cook position at the diner, owned and run by Hector Elizondo's character. Instantly, he has a crush on her but Frankie rebuffs his advances. The two have remarkable chemistry...and there are some funny scenes that will make you laugh as well.