Streets of Philadelphia - Unter Verrätern

Tommy (James Marsden) is a Marine threatened with prison after a drunken fight during the Gulf War. It's 1991. Unscrupulous FBI Agent Horvath (Brian Dennehy) recruits him as a confidential informer. His family is connected to the Philadelphia mafia. Mob boss Matty Matello (Dennis Hopper) has been assassinated and Tommy's beloved cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi) is the new leader. The New York mob is looking to take over.

This is second tier gangster flick. It feels like it. It looks like it. The filmmaking is strictly second tier level. Marsden is not quite mobster material. I guess that Tommy is not a mobster but it would be better to have some buried mobster within him. Marsden can't do that. Brad Renfro could have done it better. The saving grace of this movie is Ribisi. He is the definition of unstable and is a great mini-Hopper. At the end of the day, this is very derivative and a lesser version of better movies. I do still like me some Ribisi.

Ribisi is always good and he gives a great performance. I can;t say the rest of the cast does. The mother character is nothing too special and the lead is mediocre. The whole mob feel gets lost when Tommy Lee makes his appearance. It starts out with the cliché, voice over done by the lead character as all mob movies do. There is no real description of the rise of Joey(Ribisi's Character) to mob boss. It was a story based on a Philadelphia mafia, I was thinking Joey Merlino but I guess not because of the ending. All in all the movie was not that bad. I recommend "Gotti" or "Goodfellas" first though. No major players in this one but it will hold your attention. I wish there was more story of the kids growing up into mob guys but they skip that and head right into adulthood.

I gave this film an 8. Maybe it's just because I happen to think Giovanni Ribisi is an exceptional actor, but I really did find this to be a surprisingly good film. The one thing that didn't sit well with me was the idea that James Marsden is the star. That's simply a misnomer. He is a decent actor and does give a professional effort, but I just do not see him as the street-tough Philly kid he's supposed to be. Maybe this is a bit cynical, but there really wouldn't be much reason for a woman to watch this movie if not for somebody with good looks like Marsden playing the lead character and gracing the cover of the DVD. Hey, don't get me wrong, Piper Perabo has made me watch a movie or two that I regret, so it definitely goes both ways. Still, I could have done without the forced romance angle that they really tried to pull off between the two of them. But overall I definitely would recommend seeing this film for Ribisi's performance if nothing else. As he ages he's beginning to play some much darker, grittier characters which suits him very well. His versatility is astounding, especially his ability to maintain a level of sympathy no matter how many misdeeds he commits. Check this one out if you're a fan of the genre, it will hold your attention and may surprise you a bit as it's much more than just the former Marine forced to return home in order save his family from a couple of corrupt cops trying to extort him.

What an awful film. I caught a screening of it last night in Irvine, CA. I think the filmmakers would be lucky if it made it straight to USA or FX. It's not even good enough for Showtime. Seriously though. Every cliché in existence is thrown in, combined with REALLY bad acting and REALLY bad cameos from Val Kilmer and Dennis Hopper. What a waste of time. The worst performance in the film probably comes from Lesley Ann Warren, who acts all Jennifer Coolidge-esquire in an over-the-top role. After seeing this movie, everyone will know that Paul Haggis is the real brains behind "Crash," because what Bobby Moresco wrote here comes straight from the lame examples you would find in a book on how to write a screenplay. Trust me, and don't waste your time on this movie if it ever ends up coming to a theater near you, which it probably won't. This was pure trash.

A decent story, good acting, but for a good number of people who have spent any time in Philly and/or Pittsburgh, ... you can't pull off calling Pittsburgh 'Philadelphia' (anymore then you can call Philadelphia 'Pittsburgh'). Both cities are great locations for movies... but just because they both happen to be in Pennsylvania, you can't interchange them -- geographically, architecturally they are distinctively unique (even if you leave the "Youse Guys" and the "Younse" accents out of it). Had South Philly's "Rocky" been filmed in Pittsburgh but pawned off as Philly it wouldn't be the classic it became, (nor conversely would the "Deer Hunter") it would have been ruined. I don't know how much better "10th & Wolf" would have been if the geography matched the story, but for me it would have been more believable.