* CatharsisFactor: Seeing Frank choke out his obnoxious nephew at the Thanksgiving dinner for ruining the day for everyone, especially Frank and Charlie, [[note]]the latter of whom provoked him to react due to his MaliciousMisnaming of calling him "Chuckie" ''twice'' even after the colonel orders him not to do it, in spite of all of the vicious (but not all entirely untrue) things he said about the former. The man ''does'' have a flippant attitude, ''is'' an alcoholic and ''did'' use extremely poor judgment in juggling live grenades, which caused his blindness, but a holiday isn't the right place to air grievances with him or to call him a blind asshole or brag about God punishing him, especially when his own father, Frank's older brother, and other family members keeps pleading with him to stop[[/note]] is this to many people who have that one prick family member/frenemy who always goes too far and you wish you could hit but can't due to alienating family relations or facing potential legal trouble.
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/ChrisODonnell deserves some love here for holding his own against Creator/AlPacino and making their relationship and the mutual benefit entirely believable.
* HilariousInHindsight: George Willis Jr. is a boisterous, cajoling rich kid who is stocky, round-faced, and wears his blonde hair chin-length, with a comb-over to the left. The resemblance to [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump a certain US businessman-turned-President]] became funnier when in 2017 Creator/ChrisODonnell revealed that Trump did demand a scene in the movie if they were to film at the Plaza Hotel which he owns, but it was cut out immediately after filming.
* MainstreamObscurity: "Hey, it's that film where Creator/AlPacino finally won an Oscar! Hey, it's that film that robbed Creator/DenzelWashington (''Film/MalcolmX''), Creator/ClintEastwood (''Film/{{Unforgiven}}''), and Creator/RobertDowneyJr (''Film/{{Chaplin}}'') of the Best Actor Oscar!" This is done all the time, unfortunately. As talented as he is and all the nominations he received throughout the years, Al was ''repeatedly'' snubbed by the Oscars, and [[VindicatedByHistory while the film has gotten a better reputation in the years since its release]], many were surprised that [[ConsolationPrize he finally received his award for this film]].
* MemeticMutation: The movie, and in particular Al Pacino's catchphrase "Hoo-ah!" and other verbal tics, have gone on to become staples of meme culture through both [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kQBz9azy8 supercuts]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4nwhq1JARA it being lampooned on an episode]] of ''The Critic''.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: There are plenty of moments, including Col. Slade's tango, his ''driving'', the fact he manages to talk a cop out of a ticket without the man ever realizing he's blind, the standoff between Slade and Charlie and the meeting before the council, especially both the [[PrecisionFStrike "FUCK YOU, TOO!"]] and for [[spoiler:getting Charlie off (and the ''whole school'' giving them a standing ovation)]].
* OneSceneWonder: A younger Creator/GabrielleAnwar plays Donna, who does a memorable tango dance with Col. Slade.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/ChrisODonnell would go on to play Robin in ''Film/BatmanForever'' and ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''.
** Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman would have a 20-year, very diverse career until his death in 2014.
** Creator/GabrielleAnwar would go on to play Fiona Glenanne on the TV series ''Series/BurnNotice''.
** Creator/BradleyWhitford, who plays Slade's nephew here, would become more widely known following his work as Josh Lyman on ''Series/TheWestWing''.
** June Squibb would also gain wider recognition two decades later when she earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in ''Film/{{Nebraska}}''.
** Creator/FrancesConroy (who, around this point, was more focused on theatrical work) would eventually gain great critical acclaim as Ruth Fisher in ''Series/SixFeetUnder''.
** Creator/RonEldard, who plays the officer who pulls Slade over when he's driving the Ferrari, would go on to appear in many films (''Film/DeepImpact'', ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog'') and TV shows (''Series/{{ER}}'', ''Series/{{Justified}}'').
* TearJerker:
** Frank and Charlie in the standoff, with the latter trying everything he can to convince the former [[spoiler:not to kill himself. Even after wrestling the gun from him and talking him down, it still does not undo his eventual total blindness, something he is painfully aware of.]]
--->"I'm in the dark here! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! I'M IN THE DARK!!"
** Even the scene before is pretty sad; throughout the film until that point, Frank was so full of life and piss and vinegar, yet that morning he's so low and depressed, he has to be woken by Charlie and he devises a plan to send the kid on errands. Thank God he ends up coming back soon.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Randy, Frank's nephew, is supposed to be portrayed as a petty, spiteful jerk. But while he isn't an angel and he's frosty from the start (and for good reason, seeing Frank's history with his family [[spoiler:and how his shenanigans ended up making him blind]]), he only starts making jabs at the colonel when he doesn't stop insulting him, as well as making passes at his wife (judging by her nervousness, not for the first time), making a show out of misnaming her, or using her as a proxy to poke fun at Randy's supposed sexual ineptitude. Interestingly, Frank only goes ballistic when when Randy starts insulting Charles by intentionally misnaming him; he seems otherwise to take the insults to himself in stride, or even be in agreement.

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