THE CREW RATING: 6/10 --> Barely recommendable
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A great premise that shoulda been done a long time ago: so what happens to all of these mobsters once they make it past their salad days and wander into the realm of senior citizen? What would Tony Montana be doing in his late 70s? What about Henry Hill, Jimmy and Tommy from GOODFELLAS? Would they still be "busting" each other's balls, foggeding abouddit and talking about whacking out this and that guy? Great premise for a comedy, right? Well, unfortunately these old-timers only succeed about halfway.
PLOT: Four mobsters have run into an enemy that they could never turn back: old age. Past their mafioso prime and living in a condo down in Miami Beach, these four friends just don't know what to do with themselves anymore. But when faced with an eviction from their comfortable little abode, the four-some decide to wrangle up some of their old school techniques so that they could stay in Florida. Deed done, the crew fall back into their mobster ways, but not without many blunders, whoopsies and screwups.
CRITIQUE: A cute movie featuring some fun performances from its stars which gives plenty of nods to its primary source of inspiration, GOODFELLAS, but not enough full fledged humor to complete its intriguing premise. I was hoping that this movie would be funnier, more interesting and better paced, but the whole of the film provided for a few good laughs, an unnecessarily convoluted plot and way too many characters for its own good. For example, I loved Burt Reynolds' character. The guy was a badass in the day and older now, still refusing to allow his age dictate his way of being. Unfortunately, we don't get enough of the guy. A few cutesy scenes of him getting pissed at people and that's that! I wanted more Burt!! (I never thought I'd ever hear myself say that). I also liked the Columbian drug lord, played delectably by Miguel Sandoval, a man who knows that he's a walking cliché of a drug lord and even says so in the movie! Funny stuff.
But most of the humor in the film is just too sporadic and weak. I was waiting to laugh, but the laughs did not come, as the film involved itself in way too many shenanigans and characters. There was no real need to put in a shmaltzy "dad looking for his long-lost daughter" side-story (that's another movie, fellas!) and waste more time with a couple of cops bickering about the mistakes that were made in their past relationship. The film is called THE CREW and I wished the filmmakers had stuck more with them, and tried to make the script funnier and tighter for the audience. But enough wishing! For what it was, the film did have a nice feel, some groovy "old school" tunes, solid performances from the top four, some funny jokes, plenty of cool camera tricks, and enough GOODFELLAS references to put a smile on my face (see below for specifics). On the downside, the film didn't live up to its potential, slowed down at several points and didn't provide enough "funny" for the money. In the end, I would say that this is the perfect "video movie" for those who appreciate the gangster genre, want to see Jennifer's Tillies as a stripper and enjoy easy-going humor. In fact, the older generation will more than likely enjoy this one more than the rest of us, since many of the jokes are somewhat generational. And with the success of SPACE COWBOYS, who knows...this might just be the perfect timing!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Maybe it's because GOODFELLAS is one of my favorite films of all time, but here are only a few of the obvious references/nods that I noticed in this film: 1) The film starts off with a voice-over from one of the characters telling us about how "from as long as he could remember, he always wanted to be a wiseguy". Check! 2) One of the characters in this film mentions how he's now turned into a "9 to 5 schnook", a person who Henry Hill (the lead in GOODFELLAS) never wanted to become. Check! 3) A character mentions the Luftansa heist at one point in this movie. That heist is the one performed by the GOODFELLAS gang back in the 70s. Check! 4) The film is packed with several of Scorsese's trademark camera moves with freeze-frames and swooping camera shots galore. Check! 5) Frank Vincent, better known as Billy Batts in GOODFELLAS (the guy who gets the crap beat out of him by Tommy and the gang) shows up in this flick hawking guns. Also to note, Reynolds' character is nicknamed "Bats". Check once more! 6) Finally, and easily the most obvious homage to Scorsese is the scene in which the crew slip a guy some dough to get into a restaurant and are taken through an entire kitchen with us following them the whole way with a hand-held camera. Very cool. Checkmate! The screenwriter obviously knows his GOODFELLAS. If you know of any others, please let me know and I will add them to this list.
Review Date: August 23, 2000 Director: Michael Dinner Writer: Barry Fanaro Producer: Barry Sonnenfeld and Barry Josephson Actors: Richard Dreyfuss as Bobby Bartellemeo Burt Reynolds as Joey "Bats" Pistella Dan Hedaya as Mike the Brick Seymour Cassel as Tony "Mouth" Donato Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 2000 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
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