The signs for Live by Night are promising. Ben Affleck’s previous directorial offerings — “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town,” “Argo” — showed ever increasing confidence and skill. The period gangster sub-genre has delivered such classics as “The Godfather,” “The Godfather: Part II” and “Once Upon a Time in America.” The source material, Dennis Lehane’s epic,…
My friend once told me a story of how he was visiting Las Vegas in the mid-1990s. He said that the person he was with, John, introduced him to a rather sharply-dressed man who told him, “Whatever you want here, just ask for it,” and then walked away. John said, “Do you know who that…
If a scathing review isn’t enough to steer a viewer away from watching tripe like Diamond Heist (or “Magic Boys,” depending on what Google search results tell you), then perhaps the very idea of Michael Madsen (“Loosies”) as a former Chippendale dancer will act as the clearest warning. Seriously. Just picture Michael Madsen. Then picture…
From its first scene of dialogue, older Italian men with permanent scowls etched into their world weary faces mumbling to each other in a Brooklyn bar, Zarra’s Law reads like a mob movie made by someone who wants to imitate the genre but doesn’t speak a word of English. For a significant portion of the…
Anyone with a heartbeat knows that when given a particular set of skills and a menacing attitude Denzel Washington knows how to administer street justice. Under the constructive guidance of director Antoine Fuqua (“Olympus Has Fallen,” “Shooter”), he’s given the opportunity to do it again in the pair’s latest project, The Equalizer. As Robert McCall,…
In The Drop, Tom Hardy offers a subdued performance as a bartender in a two-bit dive that gets held up by crooks who apparently don’t realize that they’re stealing mob money. The subsequent investigation slowly stirs up old neighborhood stories and tragic secrets. Hardy’s Bob Saginowski is an area lifer; he and his cousin Marv…
Some years ago I learned 1930s and ’40s era gangsters learned to talk “gangster” from the motion pictures. James Cagney probably had more to do with coining gangster lingo and slang than John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, and Al Capone combined. Gangster Squad gets the clothes right, does a decent job with 1949 era Los…
