(Damian Lau, Flora Chong-Leen, Norman Chu, et al / Blu-ray / NR / (1994) 2026 / Severin Films)

Overview: Seven years after unleashing his horror classic RETRIBUTION, filmmaker Guy Magar rolled the dice to write, produce and direct the low-budget mob drama he described as “a tribute to Martin Scorsese” and which introduced an unknown Matt LeBlanc only months before landing his breakout role in Friends: Having survived a New York City shootout gone horrifically wrong, a former mafioso (Jay Acovone of Beauty and the Beast and Stargate SG-1) is now living a quiet life working in a Los Angeles used bookstore.

But when his reckless nephew (LeBlanc) gets involved with local gang culture, they’re both dragged into an unforgiving urban jungle where fear is weakness, vengeance is destiny and family bonds can never be broken.

Three-time Grammy-winning soul legend Lou Rawls co-stars – with Denise Richards in one of her earliest film roles – in “Matt LeBlanc’s lost movie, featuring the young actor like you’ve never seen him before” (Inside Edition), now scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with 2 hours of Special Features that include a long-unseen 1993 on-set interview with LeBlanc.

Blu-ray Verdict: Filmmaker Guy Magar may well have previously brought us the quite visually stunning horror flick Retribution, but this was such a sidestep away from that genre that you have to worry for his state of mind at the time he agreed to make Lookin’ Italian! It opens with nocturnal panoramic shots of New York and then has a brief but decent shootout. After that, well, we get many scenes where the up and coming star Matt LeBlanc is shirtless, displaying his impressive biceps, but not a lot else.

I mean, if I had been told beforehand that this film was solely built as a visual medium for LeBlanc to get his role as Joey on Friends a year or so later, then I could honestly fully understand its reason for concept. But as we all know now, it was not, and yet LeBlanc takes what he can from the script, chews it up, hams it when necessary, adds some cheese within his line delivery, and yet still comes out of it all like a shining light in the spaghetti darkness.

Funnily enough, after this role, LeBlanc decided to steer clear of this kind of overwrought drama, instead getting enlisted into the comedic TV world of Friends, which is good (for him) as his portrayal of an Italian Mafioso is rather cliched to say the least.

However, and with that all said, Jay Avocone is pretty good as Vinny the brother of Anthony (Matt Leblanc), there are genuine moments of cinematographic flair, and overall, and as much as its genuinely amusing in its beyond-parody use of Italian-American stereotypes; what works is that it may take itself seriously, but objectively it is a cinematic oddity, and thus one that was actually fun to watch [E.S.]

Bonus Features:
Directin’ Italian – Interview With Writer/Producer/Director Guy Magar
Archival Interview With Writer/Producer/Director Guy Magar
Archival Interview With Actor Jay Acovone
Archival Interview With Actor Matt LeBlanc
Archival Interview With Actress Stephanie Richards
Archival Interview With Actor Lou Rawls
Archival Interview With Actor John LaMotta
Q&A With Writer/Producer/Director Guy Magar And Actors Jay Acovone, Matt LeBlanc, Stephanie Richards And Ralph Manza From The 1994 Palm Springs International Film Festival
Inside Edition Exclusive Look
Behind The Scenes
Gag Reel
Trailer

Official Trailer

Official Purchase Link