bellino-angelo2014

Before you read the review you have to be forewarned that I am no expert on the life of Danny Greene nor the events around his time. Instead I decided to watch this movie in the occasion of Val Kilmer's death as it's one of his last movies before the health issues. Now I can go to the review.

The story begins in 1960 when Billy McComber, a childhood friend of Greene, has a huge gambling debt towards gangster John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio) and to forgive the debt Greene (Ray Stevenson) supplies Nardi with goods stolen from the docks. Soon Greene kicks crime boss Joe Nardi (Bob Gunton) out of his office and becomes union president making the conditions of working around the docks better while making business with Nardi. However detective Joe Manditski (Kilmer), who knew Greene since very long, arrests him and now broke and in jail Greene has the chance from Nardi of becoming an enforcer for loan shark Shondor Binns (Christopher Walken). After some time Danny is arrested again because he killed someone that wanted to kill Frato but freed only after Frato's driver tells Manditski that he acted in self defense.

Some time passes and Greene opens, with the help of Shondor, a restaurant and lounge bar and Greene will end up killing Shondor because his courier used their money for buying cocaine and Greene says that the Irishman has now to finance himself without counting on anyone. For revenge against Licavoli, Greene and Nardi organize a mass bombing throughout Cleveland where many of Licavoli's men are killed and he hasn't other choice that ask to boss Tony Salerno (Paul Sorvino) for help. In fact Salerno allies with hitman Ray Ferritto (Robert Davi) and kills nearly all of Greene's associates, and Greene himself will end up killed after a dentist appointment where a car bomb was in the car near his parked one. Greene's murder will be seen as the one that crippled the American mafia starting in Cleveland.

As I am no expert on Greene I checked on his life as soon as the movie was over and it was very accurate in depicting all the events. But what I liked most of the movie was the star studded cast (Stevenson, D'Onofrio, Kilmer, Walken, Gunton, Sorvino, Mike Starr, Davi, Linda Cardellini and Vinnie Jones) and their performances which were very credible and well acted, and despite I haven't seen THE IRISHMAN I think it's like that one along with being like its shorter version. Overall, if you like gangster movies this would make your day even if you aren't experts on Greene's life.

For many TRUE ROMANCE is considered a precursor of PULP FICTION because of the crime element and the various characters' stories interwined, and it's easy to see Quentin Tarantino's writing here as he was fresh from the success of RESERVOIR DOGS. As for me I decided to watch it the day after Val Kilmer died and it was worth it for celebrating his career.

Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) is a comic book shop worker that is obsessed with movies about kung fu and with Elvis Presley. Once in a theater he meets Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) and after the kung fu movie's over they go at his store and make love; the next day Alabama is seen crying because she reveals to be a call girl that should have been the birthday present for Clarence for making him lose his verginity but she ended up falling in love with him. Soon after Clarence is visited by the ghost of Elvis (Kilmer) who convinces him to kill Alabama's pimp Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) and steal a suitcase containing some drugs from a gang with which Drexl was feuding. Before they leave for Los Angeles, Clarence asks help from his father Clifford (Dennis Hopper) since he is a retired police officer and after the two are gone Clifford is visited by Vincenzo Concotti (Christopher Walken) who was behind Drexl's deal of taking the drug to the boss Blue Lou Boyle. After Concotti shots Clifford dead, lots of killing and mahyem for Clarence and Alabama once they arrive in Los Angeles, with detectives Cody Nicholson and Nicky DImes (Tom Sizemore and Chris Penn) hot on their trail and the deal that will take place at the house of stoner Floyd (Brad Pitt). After some time a big shootout between the mobsters and the police ensues, and just as Clarence and Alabama flee they have a kid that name Elvis.

I tried to explain the plot the best as I could because it's one of those movies that is best to be seen without knowing much of what's in store. The performances by all (Slater, Arquette, Kilmer, Penn, Sizemore, Oldman tho for only a few minutes, Pitt, Bronson Pinchot, Hopper and Walken) were very good, the action sequences fine and the ending incredibly tense and gory. Overall, if you love PULP FICTION you'd like this one as well because of the atmosphere.

What made me curious for years about HOMICIDE was that in some actors' filmographies (and some voice dubbers' lists of their dubbed actors) this show appeared so often that I knew I had to try it one day or another and so on August 2024 I started (and ended three months later) and to my surprise it was incredibly good for the most part, even the TV movie made a year after the end.

The formula is simple, and it's easy to see why it lasted for six years (this also because the first season had only 9 episodes and the second only 4): when every episode begins a person is found and the various detectives in the unit investigate and not only they try to find the culprits but they often end up dealing with personal issues such as faith (it happened three times counting also the dead buddhist episode), family (when Felton's wife doesn't let him see his children, and it will happen also to Falsone) and history (when they discussed the origins of a murderer). And when the culprits are arrested, they rarely get away with murders.

What makes this show great (and in fact it took me by surprise when I found so many good stories)? First the writing, done mostly by Paul Attanasio that managed to make the characters believable and similar to real life people than those found in many other shows of those years. Second, the setting since Baltimore never looked so gritty to make the Bronx look like GREEN ACRES!

And third but most important, the cast. The leads are played by many entertaining stars such as Jon Polito, Daniel Baldwin (that apart from BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY has an incredible track record of terrible movies), Reed Diamond, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Belzer (that manages to use his comedic talents at his best) and Ned Beatty that were the awesomely dinamic duo until Beatty left the show after the third season, Andre Braugher (today marks two years since he passed away), Kyle Secor, Max Perlich (the one I always related to probably because of his nerdy nature), Peter Gerety, Zeljko Ivanek and Giancarlo Esposito that give always great and credible performances with some (especially Belzer, Perlich and Braugher) giving some unintentional funny moments. But also the guest stars make an amazing line-up: with the likes of Wilford Brimley, Steve Buscemi (who even directed an episode seasons later his guest starring), Joan Chen, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeffrey Donovan, Tate Donovan (no related), Peter Gallagher, Paul Giamatti, Luis Guzman, Jake Gyllenhall, Marcia Gay Harden, James Earl Jones, Terry Kinney, Christopher Meloni, David Morse, Chris Rock (and a reviewer called him Chris Tucker), J K Simmons, Ben Stiller's parents (Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller), Eric Stoltz, Tony Todd, Isaiah Washington, John Waters (yeah the director of SERIAL MOM of all people), Robin Williams, Elijah Wood, Rosanna Arquette and Mekhi Phifer that give mostly great performances as suspects that aren't exactly what they seem (while Stoltz and Tate played Diamond's troublemaking brothers that make him end in jail when they came for a visit) and it's nice to see all these faces throughout the series.

With all that being said, not all episodes are excellent. I gave a 5 to only one that grated me for the many irritating characters crammed in the stories, some 6 to episodes that left me cold or were ruined by some of the detectives' actions but if you can forgive them you end up enjoying the show to the end even if you are not a follower of the LAW & ORDER universe (and in fact we had some crossovers throughout the series trust me). And the theme song becomes stuck on you from once you reach the third season.