I finally got to see this (Let's just say it fell off the back of a computer) after waiting for a year because I am, admittedly, a Frank Vincent fan (we share common roots, and I got to meet him, nice man) and a mob movie fan.
So what we have here is a well produced film that doesn't know what it is about. Mob movie, Conspiracy movie, semi-Action movie, Character Study, Shoot-'m up? I like all of them but not when they are put in a blender. It is a director failure primarily, with some good writing, but not much.
Vincent is great as always given what he has. He wisely nuances his Jersey accent into a Chicago one without trying to go all the way in to play as a Chicago native and make a blatant mistake. It works. Kathrine Narducci is truly excellent in a limited role.
But that is about where the acting ends. Aside from Armand Assante and Stacey Keach in cameos that last minutes and seconds, the cast in this is pretty awful. Again, this is in the end a director failure.
Some of it is just silly...a hood with a record keeps a Thompson submachine gun in plain view on a wall in his apartment. Federal rap? No Problem. And he keeps it there for nostalgia for the old days...is he 95? The Thompson is Al Capone, not the 60's and 70's Vincent's character would have come up in.
No, I really wanted to like this, but there is nothing even remotely new here...it's one of those annoying movies where you sit there and identify the other movies you saw it in as you go along.
BIG SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read further before seeing!! Danny Goldring is absolutely horrid in this as the driven older detective. Just horrid. You clap your hands and go "Yes!" when Lou shoots him in the face and walks away. It is intended as irony...it ends up as just being glad somebody shot the actor.
So what we have here is a well produced film that doesn't know what it is about. Mob movie, Conspiracy movie, semi-Action movie, Character Study, Shoot-'m up? I like all of them but not when they are put in a blender. It is a director failure primarily, with some good writing, but not much.
Vincent is great as always given what he has. He wisely nuances his Jersey accent into a Chicago one without trying to go all the way in to play as a Chicago native and make a blatant mistake. It works. Kathrine Narducci is truly excellent in a limited role.
But that is about where the acting ends. Aside from Armand Assante and Stacey Keach in cameos that last minutes and seconds, the cast in this is pretty awful. Again, this is in the end a director failure.
Some of it is just silly...a hood with a record keeps a Thompson submachine gun in plain view on a wall in his apartment. Federal rap? No Problem. And he keeps it there for nostalgia for the old days...is he 95? The Thompson is Al Capone, not the 60's and 70's Vincent's character would have come up in.
No, I really wanted to like this, but there is nothing even remotely new here...it's one of those annoying movies where you sit there and identify the other movies you saw it in as you go along.
BIG SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read further before seeing!! Danny Goldring is absolutely horrid in this as the driven older detective. Just horrid. You clap your hands and go "Yes!" when Lou shoots him in the face and walks away. It is intended as irony...it ends up as just being glad somebody shot the actor.