Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
So we’re almost there. October 11th. The single most gluttonous day in release in recent memory, where dozens of films are seemingly being hiccuped up into wide and limited release. We’re going to run a big batch of RULES OF ATTRACTION reviews tomorrow, along with any last minute BELOW pieces or BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE pieces.
Here’s our first guest reviewer today...
First-time writer here--just got back from a college screening of Knockaround Guys.
I really wanted to like this movie. I loved Rounders, and apparently this is the same writer/director; I'm a fan of Malkovich, Seth Green, and Vin Diesel. I was psyched about this one. Unfortunately, it completely fails to deliver.
The acting's fine. Malkovich hams it up a bit, but it's the role; no real complaint. It's the script, unfortunately. Whatever was working in Rounders just didn't come together here. Apparently this one has been shelved for awhile (you can see the WTC in the NYC cityscape shots) - it's because it's just bad. Ultimately the movie can't decide what it is – a badass gangster movie, a fish-out-of-water story (New York ganster-wannabes find themselves in rural Montana looking for a misplaced bag with $500,000), or just a goofy comedy. As a result, it fails to work as anything.
Besides that, there's the dialog. It's just sad. There are about 10 minutes of cliche-ridden "I just wanted my father to appreciate me... we've got it rough because our fathers are mobsters" crap, and it's 10 minutes too many.
Another problem was the irrationality of various key plot-points. I won't spoil it here, but there are a number of times when characters' reactions just don't make sense.
It wasn't all bad. Seth Green and Vin Diesel are great, and I loved John Malkovich, even if other people found him hard to take seriously. But this is NOT worth spending your hard-earned money to see. The crowd here was laughing at the film more often than they were laughing with it.
Call me Hunter Rose.
Our next mysterious reviewer seems to have had a pretty good time...
Hey guys,
I caught a Monday night screening of "Knockaround Guys," here in Alburqurque and I thought I'd give you a review.
It was a free preview to spread good word on the film, and I must say it was a pretty good film. Good, but not without its flaws.
Barry Pepper, who I really don't know much about, gives a soild lead performance here as Matty, the son of a Brooklyn underboss who at age twelve fails to kill the man who ratted his father out, which his well sounding uncle Teddy (a creepy looking and sounding John Malkovich) puts him up to. It seems to direct his life from that as his eventually released father (Dennis Hopper) and uncle never seem to fully trust him in their world again. As he fails to gain a respectable job beacuse of his fathers name, Matty begins to feel worthless even though he has it all. This need to feel worth something leads to Matty, with the help of Teddy, talking his father into trusting his friend, Marbles (a funny but small statured Seth Green) a pilot into flying to Spokane and back a bag with half a millions dollars.
Of course things go wrong when Marbles loses the bag following an encounter with the arrogant town sheriff in the small town of Wibeux, Montana. Matty, terrifed he's first transer will end in disaster, heads off with his other two best friends: the ladies man Chris (Andrew Davoli), and the tough guy Taylor (you guessed it, a huge looking Vin Diesel).
What follows is several encounters of the four Brooklyn born kids trying to get bag back to Matty's father, who is infurated he ever trusted Matty with something this imporant. There are several intersting plot twists, including the sheriff slowly receding into maddness with his cockiness, and Teddy's own dark secrets.
The cast for the most part does a great job. Diesel, as expected simply controls every scene he's in. He looks even bigger then usualy lately, maybe since they kept giving him these tight shite shirts with pitch black backgrounds. He simply stars in every scene he is in, though he really doesn't have much screen time as i had expected. There are some quiet moments with Pepper, who I believe also starred with him in "Saving Private Ryan", which suprisingly click. Pepper also impresses, altough some moments, such as an early confrontation with his father, fall flat. Green is not given nearly enough, but his final moments carried more emotions then anything else in the film for me. Davoli I have never seen before, and he does a decent job considering his character is fare and away the least developed. Hopper is as intense and glaring as always, even though he's barely in the film. It's Malkovitch, who i usually love who doesn't for me in this film. I never believd Freddy or his motives, which was my central porblem with the film.
All in all I really enjoyed it, as did my friends at the screening who knew nothing about the film going in. I would have seen the movie for the actors gathered here alone. Even if where just lined up against a white wall these guys would just overpower the screen. Diesel the most powerful of all of course. Most people there showed up just to see him, which I expect to help the film's overall gross, and they seem satisfied with his back role. He does have several scenes which work just perfect, like when the small town tough guys challeges Diesel to a fight you just asking yourself, "Who in the hell would challenge Vin Diesel to a fight?!?!"
There are plot holes in the films climax, which didn't keep me from being excited by it, as several parts of the first scene in the movie forshadowed. It is a good mix of drama, action, and enough comedy to keep things lively. My problems over Freddy's character cannot keep me for recommending however. So yeah, go watch it.
Guy X
And then there’s our former President, Ronald Reagan. I’d heard that he can’t even recognize Nancy anymore, but he wrote me from the heart of Orange County, where he saw the film earlier tonight, and he seems to remember it juts fine. Now, as far as liking it is concerned...
"Knockaround Guys" is one of those films that flop around in the box office for a week or two before slipping into oblivion, with no one remembering it. It uses all sorts of Hollywood stereotypes as its cardboard Brooklyn mobsters find themselves in a town full of cardboard redneck townspeople, going after a bag full of cash in a quick, somewhat entertaining film that was no doubt released after spending a year on the studio shelf due to Vin Diesel's sudden rise to prominence. There's little else to see why this flick would end up in the projector room of your local theater.
The film centers around Maddy (Barry Pepper), the son of underworld boss Benny 'Chains' Demaret (Dennis Hopper). He's frustrated at every turn by his father's reputation, which follows him around as he seeks to gain a legimate life outside of the mob as a sports agent.
Maddy doesn't want to follow his father's life, traumatized by the torture and murder of a snitch when he was a kid. He's goaded by his father's second in command, Teddy Deserve (John Malkovich) to shoot the guy, but can't bring himself to do it. "You're just not that cut out that way," Teddy says, finishing the job himself after Maddy leaves the room.
Now, grown up, he finds himself shut out of the outside world due to his mob ties, and decides to prove himself a gangster to the old man by getting of of his friends, Johnny Marbles (Seth Green) to deliver a half a million dollars by plane from cross country. Green's character promtly screws things up, losing the money in an airport in a remote Montana town to some stoner air baggage handlers after he gets scared at the sight of the town's sheriff (Tom Noonan)
Maddy decides to gather a crew of "knockaround guys" (Vin Diesel, Chris Scarpa) to get the money back, which ends up in various hands, while his father sends his own men to retrieve the cash.
The film's been sitting at the studio shelf for two years (there's a long shot of Manhattan at night, World Trade Center and all) and it's little wonder. The decent cast sputters and does their best with the uninspired script, which recyles trite stereotypes of mobsters ("Hey Tony!" in a thick Brooklyn accent) and rednecks and uses them for all sorts of predictable fish-out-of-water jokes as Maddy and his wannabe crew negoiate with the town's sheriff and local toughs.
Vin Diesel is decent, rehashing his role in The Fast and The Furious as a wisened, badass criminal veteran, a guy who intimidates just be showing off his muscles, who's trapped in a criminal life. Seth Green's character comes off as a likable guy despite his incompetence, and John Malkovich does what he can with his limited role as a smartass enforcer. Dennis Hopper is particularly limited, with maybe 5 or so minutes of screen time, if that. Barry Pepper, again, is only average in his role.
Simply, the script has very little of interest for these talented men to do. Sheer boredom is most likely to blame for the tepid acting.
The movie resolves quickly in the end, with the kind of Hollywood climax that wraps up everything for the characters by the time the film fades to black.
The movie's short, clocking at around 90 minutes, which is good, since the movie is terribly mediocre and forgettable. I noticed a lot of reel changes near the beginning, suggesting the movie was cut up a lot, probably to give Vin Diesel more screen time in his supporting role.
This movie is original, but only if you've never seen another crime or mob movie in your life. Then its just hack work.
Directed and written by Brian Koppelman and David Levin.
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