Sinatra Club

SPOILER: Some former kid actors get to star in some real adult gangster roles as the purported story of John Gotti in the years he was making his bones as a criminal in Sinatra Club. Some Sinatra is heard, but not nearly enough for my taste on the soundtrack.

Jason Gedrick narrates and plays Ubatz aka Sal Polisi, really aka Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano. Obviously Sammy the Bull who is still with us was not given any rights to use his name so it was changed to protect the very guilty, despite the disclaimer this film proudly sports.

The Sinatra Club is a kind of neutral turf where made members of the various crime families meet and socialize and talk shop. It's also where they can be reasonably assured that they won't start whacking each other on premise. Danny Nucci who plays the charismatic young Gotti sees to that.

Nucci as Gotti has the idea to get them all working on a really big heist involving a shipment of silver both in coin and bullion with all the various crews cooperating. The idea is getting a hearing from the bosses as Gotti sells the plan. Of course the inevitable happens as these guys are violent criminals and they've got a lot of their own issues, all played out in this film.

It's neither the best or far from the worst gangster film I've seen even if it was made without Sammy the Bull's consent.