07-08-20 10th & Wolf (2006)

Seen: August 12th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 5

This is a decent little gangster film. It covers the genre pretty well, touching on several different themes common to the genre. There's family, betrayal, power struggles, corrupt cops and a bit of Pagliacci.

What more could you want?

There's nothing really revolutionary here, you've seen most of it before. But it's earnest and not too badly written.

It takes place in Philly, though Pittsburgh substitutes, and is a bit rougher around the edges than your standard NYC or Chicago gang film. Everyone's a little rough around the edges, some much more so than others. It all feels a little low-rent, in a genuine way. These gangsters aren't living high. They're doing better than most, but hardly on the A-list, excepting Reggio.

It all comes down more or less as you'd expect. Everything that's set up gets wrapped up, and there's a bunch of good natured violence to bring about most of these conclusions.

There's a ton of faces in this film. Val Kilmer has a cameo, Dennis Hopper is here briefly, Brian Dennehy drops in to play his inevitable heavy. Up and comer Giovani Ribisi is central as well. But don't let the high profile cast fool you. This is pretty much B- fare.

Piper Perabo stands out a bit. She's becomes more accomplished each time I see her. Ribisi is good, though a bit manic. Brad Renfro is very good. Marsden is OK and Tommy Lee's performance is mercifully brief.

The film is pretty dark and moody, appropriately so. This is straight ahead story telling, so there's nothing really fancy going on.

If you like gangster films and wonder what the new kids are up to, check this one out. I'm sure it'll be hitting cable sometime soon.

The Good: Decent ganster film with blurred lines

The Bad: Getting shot in the back

The Ugly: Getting stabbed in the head