A fictionalization of the early days of four major mafia figures, 'Mobsters' follows the young Luciano (Christian Slater), Lansky (Patrick Dempsey), Siegel (Richard Greico) and Costello (Costas Mandylor) as they rise from street punks to gangster powerhouses. How so? By playing back and forth between the two big dons of the time, Faranzano (Michael Gambon) and Masseria (Anthony Quinn), whom Luciano has a personal vendetta against too.
One of the dullest mob movies I have ever seen, this Mafioso spin on the Young Guns formula is flat and generic. Despite the solid production values, the direction by commercials veteran Michael Karbelnikoff is so bland and televisual that a lot of the mood and atmosphere is nonexistent (not helped by the strange use of blackouts every twenty minutes, like the movie is going to an ad break). This could be forgiven if the story had meat, but instead, the characters are every flavour of tired 'mob' tropes, and the narrative is paper-thin and clumsily constructed. The movie by turns wants to be a revenge story (which only matters during the opening and end), a romance (which is also very haphazardly chucked in), a battle of wits, an action film, a buddy movie and even to an extent, a recreation of history (which here, talk about a total whitewash of gangsters and their lives) and does none of them well.
The fact that the film is such a huge dud is a pity, as the cast do try and bring some life in, whether its our young foursome as the main charismatic hoods, or even the more ebullient Gambon and Quinn as the Dons. Plus, as I said, the film isn't cheap or ugly looking, and Michael Small's score does do a good job of bringing in that jazzy 1930s flavour.
But that's all the film has going for it. When you have writing this bland and sloppy, you render any investment nonexistent, and I could not wait for this thing to be over. I wanted to give this a chance, I wanted it to surprise, but like Nispel's promising but disastrous 'Pathfinder' before it, this was just bad.
One of the dullest mob movies I have ever seen, this Mafioso spin on the Young Guns formula is flat and generic. Despite the solid production values, the direction by commercials veteran Michael Karbelnikoff is so bland and televisual that a lot of the mood and atmosphere is nonexistent (not helped by the strange use of blackouts every twenty minutes, like the movie is going to an ad break). This could be forgiven if the story had meat, but instead, the characters are every flavour of tired 'mob' tropes, and the narrative is paper-thin and clumsily constructed. The movie by turns wants to be a revenge story (which only matters during the opening and end), a romance (which is also very haphazardly chucked in), a battle of wits, an action film, a buddy movie and even to an extent, a recreation of history (which here, talk about a total whitewash of gangsters and their lives) and does none of them well.
The fact that the film is such a huge dud is a pity, as the cast do try and bring some life in, whether its our young foursome as the main charismatic hoods, or even the more ebullient Gambon and Quinn as the Dons. Plus, as I said, the film isn't cheap or ugly looking, and Michael Small's score does do a good job of bringing in that jazzy 1930s flavour.
But that's all the film has going for it. When you have writing this bland and sloppy, you render any investment nonexistent, and I could not wait for this thing to be over. I wanted to give this a chance, I wanted it to surprise, but like Nispel's promising but disastrous 'Pathfinder' before it, this was just bad.