This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Action, K, Mob, Crime and Scam Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Starring: Barry Pepper, Seth Green, Vin Diesel, John Malkovich, Andrew Davoli, Dennis Hopper
Director: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Barry Pepper is the son of Mafioso capo, who recruits three friends to help him gain the respect of his legendary father. Things go wrong (surprise, surprise) and the four friends find themselves scrambling to find a missing moneybag with several lives hanging in the balance.
The story is simple, but well written with some very good dialogue and the acting is strong among most of the principals. I found a good balance of story and action and there were some parts that I really enjoyed. This is an early effort by Vin Diesel, made around the same time as his breakout roles in The Fast and the Furious and Pitch Black. He clearly shows his potential as a scene-stealer with powerful screen presence. I love his “500?” speech. The movie is worth seeing just for that.
Some might find the story to be too simple and be bored by some stereotype characters, but they are developed fairly well, and I found these factors to be balanced out by the movie’s strengths. This is a favorite movie of mine, and I think it is very underrated. I can’t kid myself into saying it’s a masterpiece, however. The pieces just come together for me. Maybe they will for you too.
