Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits

Saw this at a film festival last week. Wonderful premise for the story, and it builds over time rather than going flat. The audience laughed all the way through and cheered at the end. Johnny's a great character, narcissistic, naive, optimistic, a genuinely nice guy, and a perfect New Jersey-style lounge singer. The film's generously loaded with physical and verbal humor, slapstick violence, delightfully atmospheric (read: dingy) locations, and songs - songs with meaning, passion and, well...meaning, as it turns out. The comedy's paced very differently from sitcom humor, more like stand-up comedian work - that is, lots of jokes, fast paced, comin' at ya before you've squeezed the last chuckle out of the previous one. The print they showed needed much work but the producers/writers present swore they have better ones in the back seat of their car. Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits could be one of these great little indies that has legs. See it if you can!

one of the best movies i've seen in a long time! would love to see a sequel to it, the soprano men were good but i have to disagree with the last comment on having more hot babes,Charlie Payne was not only sexy and hot but i would LOVE to see "more" of her and that body! And of course those amazing piercing green eyes,no sequel would be complete without that babe.It was refreshing to see a cleverly made movie with such talented actress's and actors,this movie was funny,intriguing, suspenseful and fun all at the same time.It's to bad we don't see more movies like this. thoughts of a television sitcom come to mind, I'm sure a lot of people would tune in regularly, especially if the actress portraying Charlie Payne is leading!

I seem among commenters to be alone as someone who came into this movie not as a Sopranos fan, but as a Larry Blamire fan—I've only seen The Sopranos once. It was good, but not enough for me to get cable hooked up again.

So no, I come in as a rabid Skeleteer, a fan of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". And I was *going* to quote my IMDb review of Lost Skeleton, wondering what Blamire's directing style was like when he was shooting for himself and not emulating a style or genre, but looking at it, I see I never actually made that query in that review, so apparently I'm going to have to quote a hallucination.

It is *definitely* a question I had in mind after one of my (large but still finite number)th viewing of Lost Skeleton: if he's shooting a movie for its own sake, how would he do it? The answer is: extremely well. When you take the camera off lockdown, he moves it sensibly, a welcome relief from the vertigo-inducing roller-coaster Peter Jackson used on 'King Kong' or the attention-deficit jump-cuttery of Michael (spitspit) Bay. Personally, I found his technique reminiscent of Altman: the camera moves with purpose, not just because it can. The violence is handled with care: real enough to underscore the plot, not so real as to derail the comedy.

I'm looking forward to further non-genre projects in addition to The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, Dark and Stormy Night, and whatever else he may have in mind.

The writing—heck, I'm still giggling over "Some of the biggest comedians in the world have done comedy!" It's perfect. Some of the … well, it's too twisted to be a simple 'turn of a phrase'. Some of the phrasing is very reminiscent of Lost Skeleton. Like the directing, however, when freed from the restrictions of the genre, we see whole new dimensions to Blamire's work.

John Fiore dove in all the way to the character of Johnny Slade. I can't even begin to think of how many takes it required in studio to get a clean take on those lyrics. He's completely committed to the character, and so is Vincent Curatola as the mysterious and weirdly creative Mr. Samantha, and watching their interactions as their relationship evolves over the course of the movie is terrific.

Highly recommended, whatever the title (it'll always be "Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits" to me—"Meet the Mobsters" just doesn't swing). It's funny all the way through—I had several 'pause for an extended gigglefit' moments.

8/10

John Fiore and Frank Santorelli - as well as the rest of cast - are a RIOT to watch (call the cops!) in this wonderfully crazy comical adventure. Portnow, Curatola, Sirianni are terrific as their characters play off of Fiore's goofy, self-absorbed importance. Sirianni adds the right touch of toughness and assuredness in the midst of this group of harebrained individuals. Red Peters shows what it's really like to be a stand up comic! Santorelli is hysterical...(you just gotta see to see what I mean!) Blaire is sultry and seductive. VERY CLEVER AND CONVINCING CONCEPT...we are talking FUN! - enjoyable - good time to be had.....this is a classic!

i enjoyed it quite much. the actors from the sopranos ,my favorite show,made it all that much better.John Fiore, Vincent Curatola, and Richard Portnow get it done. i believe it is a refreshing take on a tried and true genre.the songs are fabulous and hysterical. i would love to see a sequel with a bigger budget and some hotter babes. i saw it at a screening in la...definitely worth a look. The story idea was at the very least a genius concept. With budget constraints,i'm certain, they still managed to shoot on 35. the supporting cast was strong.The audience reaction at the screening i attended was nothing less than favorable..with some genuine guffaws.