You know what’s a good mob movie? Goodfellas. How good is it? Every movie of its genre for the past 20 years has tried to duplicate its success. Of course, none have come all that close to matching it, yet this year’s Kill the Irishman tells an intriguing enough story that you should be willing to forgive the less-than-original way it’s put together. Best of all, the performance of Ray Stevenson as Danny Greene is enough to carry the entire film home. With all the gangster movies about New York, Chicago and what have you, a story about the mostly unheralded Cleveland mafia is definitely worth a look. And I’m not just saying that because I live in the area. Well, only a bit. But I firmly believe the film to be a solid effort.
The story is essentially this: Danny Greene gains power in the Cleveland mafia, Greene gets on the bad side of several key mafia figures, and said key mafia figures try to kill Danny Greene through the use of explosives, and lots of them. All the while we get appearances from such great supporting actors as Christopher Walken (who can sleep through a role and still be awesome), Val Kilmer, Vincent D’Onofrio, Linda Cardellini, Paul Sorvino and Robert Davi. It doesn’t take too many risks, and occasionally remains too faithful to the familiar Scorsesian techniques, but at least it’s a film made by people with good taste.
There are other, more popular choices this week that you could certainly choose. The Farrelly brothers’ Hall Pass is hardly terrible—though horribly uneven—and Battle: Los Angeles is just a bunch of noise that doesn’t really add up to anything. Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood also gets a release today, but I haven’t seen it. And if I ever do, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Therefore, I suggest you go for the competent little guy over these lame mainstream titles. Trust me: you’ll feel good about yourself.
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