The Crew
It's mean to laugh at old people, unless they act like they're young - then it's okay. The problem is it's difficult to make a movie on this concept, you have to have a certain niche to center the story around. "The Crew" is a rather generic modern comedy that follows this rule to the letter, but that's fine by me because the result is a geniunely funny film that is actually entertaining for the entire running time.
You might remember 1999's "Analyze This" - a comedy starring Robert De Niro as an aging gangster who finally starts to let his feelings show and thinks about retirement. "The Crew" is the next progression of that - it's what happens after the gangster has retired and moved to Florida and is now just like every other senior citizen there.
The movie stars Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassell who don't exactly look like retired mobsters, but their attitude is pretty close. Except for Reynolds' character, they've all gone rather soft in their old age to the point where they actually exchange greeting cards with other retired gangsters. They're not still involved in "the life" so why would they be enemies anymore?
The story starts rolling when we see the four old guys sitting on the porch of their beach-view apartment complex watching all the hot babes in bikinis and the guys with the huge pecs go by ("everyone on the beach has giant breasts," the Dreyfuss character narrates). The problems it's those same people who want to seize all the vacancies in the hotels and condos formerly occupied by the seniors. Management realizes this and through a series of events that aren't explained in much detail it appears our four heroes are going to be evicted and have to find a new place they can afford just on their social security and leftover savings.
They hatch a plan to mimick a mob-style hit in their building's lobby which proceeds to drive all the tenants out and land the men some reward money for agreeing to stay. One thing leads to another and suddenly they feel like they're back in the life and even get an offer to "whack" someone. They refuse and instead just try to fake it via arson but that backfires when the accidentally burn down the biggest drug lord's house in Florida.
You can pretty much imagine where the story will go from here and what it took to lead up to this. However, this is where the film surprises you - the screenplay doesn't come off as a sitcom extended to feature-length status, and although there's quite a few coincidences on top of coincidences it's buyable. The writers don't use short-cuts and I'm sure the fact Barry Sonnenfield was a producer had something to do with the movie's quality.
There is a good sense of character here, not only of the four "crew" members but also of the drug lord they've miffed, two detectives who are on to them, and a stripper and her step-mother who also get pulled into the fray.
I have to say I liked pretty much everything I saw. The comedy has many laughs and quite a few belly laughs here and there. The tone keeps everything sane and it doesn't go overboard as another zany goofball picture and there's a dash of black comedy to give it some zing. I mean, when you've got a comedy about four retired gangsters trying to get back into the life you can expect some funny stuff - do you think they know how to handle a gun anymore, or how to fake a murder or how to kidnap someone properly anymore?
"The Crew" works as a comedy not trying to be anything it's not. There is a sub-plot about Dreyfuss's character who's looking for his long-lost daughter that plays for some cheesy moments, but it's not so trite as to become a stumbling stone for the rest of the film. Everything's lighthearted enough to keep that tongue-in-cheek attitude alive.
GRADE: B
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