top of page

MOONSTRUCK: 1987 (Fandango at Home @ $2.99) No sooner does Italian-American widow Loretta (Cher) accept a marriage proposal from her doltish boyfriend, Johnny (Danny Aiello), than she finds herself falling for his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). She tries to resist, but Ronny lost his hand in an accident he blames on his brother, and has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls deeper in love, she comes to learn that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance. The supporting cast includes Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia and John Mahoney. It received six nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, winning three for Best Actress (Cher), Best Supporting Actress (Dukakis), and Best Original Screenplay (Shanley.) On its wide release, the film finished third at the US box office and spent 20 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 and finally grossed $80.6 million in the United States and Canada. Internationally it grossed $41.5 million for a worldwide total of $122.1 million, on a budget of $15 million. RT‘s Crtics gave it 90%; and audiences gave it 81%. I don’t know how anyone could resist this movie. It is one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies and Gary agrees. No matter how many times I watch the movie it never disappoints. One critic (Esquiire’s online magazine) wrote in 2020, It's one of the greatest movies about Italian-Americans ever made, and one of the few that's not about cigar-chomping mobsters. My mom put a sugar cube in the first glass of Champaign I ever had, and she wasn’t even Italian. Gary researched it and found that it’s an Italian tradition--it’s supposed to banish the devil. Gary and I agree on a grade of A. GRADE A

bottom of page