Thing that I have found out over the past few years is that the absolute worst B-movies are the ones that are in the crime/gangster genre!
Nothing more annoying than having to watch a bunch of guys trying to act and sound tough and do a bunch of criminal and despicable stuff and than asks of its viewers to still sympathize with the movie its criminal main character and care about the movie its plot.
That's one of the biggest problems with this movie; there just is no one to care about in this. The main character, played by William DeMeo, is a far from sympathetic one and there are hardly any redeeming qualities about them. It's certainly not impossible to have 'bad' guys as the main characters of a movie and care for them as well but you need to give the viewers a reason to like the protagonist or at the very least sympathize with him and care about his faith. This movie gives you absolutely no reason at all! All characters in this movie make some very poor and at times just plain stupid decisions, which makes it hard to care for any of them and get behind their motivations.
I also have to say that the movie totally lost me after a while! I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the second half of this movie because the storytelling got handled so extremely poorly. It's not just a problem with the second half of the movie but all throughout the movie is lacking a good and clear enough main point to it. It's not like it's building up toward a big heist or hit or something. Or one that's about its main character trying to make it to the top. No, it's just about a bunch of tough guys hanging around, talking, drinking, get girls, do some violent stuff and do some other criminal things. Not very compelling to watch at all! Especially not since all of the characters are such weak- and generic ones.
Thing that also doesn't really work about the movie is that it's trying to blend too many different gangster movie styles. On the one hand it's being a typical, old fashioned, 'Italian' mobster movie about the code and family and such but on the other it's also trying to bring in modern genre elements and newer type of gangsters. That explains the sudden and pointless appearances of some rappers turned actors in this movie, such as Ja Rule and Ice-T.
Who knows, maybe with some more involving characters, emotions and better written drama, this movie still could have worked out as an engaging and more watchable one. The movie as it is, is not the absolute worst one that's out there but it still is a pretty bad- and certainly no recommendable one.
4/10
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