Crooked Lines

Crooked Lines is a good-natured comedy. Yes, some of the actors have no comedic talent (they look like neighborhood locals). Best performance came from Mario Cantone as a hyper-active gambler specializing in Hockey, of all things. And the scenes between Cantone and his Bull Terrier are hysterical. And the cameo of David Johansen wasn't bad either...quite funny actually. Ben Stiller was involved in the production and his mom Anne Meara had a supporting role. Jim Breuer wasn't bad, but the other leads lacked true comic timing.

Movie was filmed in south-eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods of Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park and Mill Basin. One or more of the production personnel hailed from one of those neighborhoods.

I unfortunately bought this DVD from one of those 2 for $10 bins at my local video store. I was bored one day and wanted a dark comedy and this says "Ben Stiller presents crooked lines, the funniest comedy you've never seen this year." that's apparently true, as it seems here on IMDb, no one has posted anything about it at all. I don't blame them if they did see it. I asked my pals who work at the local video store and none of them had heard of it either. Interesting no where in the credits is Ben Stiller listed other than the back & front of the DVD case. Jim Breuer, Burt Young, & Colin Quinn are listed as the head acts in this film, strangely I only saw Colin Quin in like 4 scenes. Burt Young was decent but over all the film dragged on with stupid new york mafia clichés and every now and then a spattering of "f" words. Jim Breuer wasn't bad in his role either but everyone else in the movie was forgettable and the only interesting character in the entire flick was an annoying little dog who had a habit for "humping" a towel.

This is a great little gem. Picked it up by accident on the TV, and had great fun throughout the movie. If you would analyze it by categories, it probably wouldn't score too high, but if you start with low expectations, this baby will pleasantly surprise you.

The pace doesn't drop at any point, every now and then there is a little joke that usually works, making you impatiently wait for more. If you would go all brainy on this, of course you could bring the vote down several notches, but the point is - this is a pleasant little film, the kind that is not too hard on a tired's man brain..

The movie as a whole works, shortly put.