Stevie D

As indies go, this IS AN INDIE for sure. By that I mean it is easy to see that there were budget constraints and maybe more time could have been spent editing in some spots. But overall, this film hits the mark, tells a good story with likable, well written characters brought to life by a solid ensemble cast.

At the opening of the film, I was concerned that I was going to be subjected to 2 hrs of a predictable, mafia-trope-laden tale of caricature bad guys from the East Coast doing and saying "down and dirty" East Coast things (in LA). While there were elements of this (strip clubs, the uber-machismo of the film's antagonist and his legion of sycophantic followers) the story quickly settled into an engaging and charming ride for the audience.

In the end, this is a wonderful film. Chris Cordone scores the proverbial hat trick - It is well written, directed and acted with ALL the characters from main cast to supporting players to the bit parts so well developed and ALL contributing to the story. A fun tale that I characterize as: "Prince & The Pauper meets the confluence of RomCom, Mafia, ActorLife & Noir"

I find that we all grow up hearing our parents tell us that this or that is not acting, that in their day sew-n-sew was X and he did Z

This movie...seems to be an actual representation of that view. Sure when you see a movie that is a lower budget you will find that 1 lone guy usually is the movies only draw, that he/she carries it. It reminds me of how many BAD MOVIES were bearable, to me at least, if Luke Goss played the main roll.

This is NOT one of those films.

In the movie, hand to heart, everyone UNDER 40 sucked per acting and delivery and everyone OVER 50 owned each specific role. I have to ponder a reality where geriatric actors are able to "own" a role, even if it is a bit part with 30 seconds of screen time, yet the lead actor and the co-lead struggle to deliver ANYTHING that can be compared to genuine.

I assume it is simple experience....except I can hardly, for the life of me, think of an actor that was BAD in his late 20's and early 30's, that morphed into a PARAGON OF ACTING SKILL !

So, either you have it or you don't. Bad writing can only cover so many of the excuses before it falls onto the actors.

There ARE some WELL acted scenes in this movie....but NONE of them relate to anyone who is not of Social Security.

The rating, at the time of this writing, is a LOADED and FIXED 8.5. I assume a "family and friends" rating :) The movie is to comedy fans what a low budget zombie flick is to zombie fans. Bearable but leaving them trying to explain to other's why they should have enjoyed it......

Solid acting and delivery from Hal Linden,Al Sapienza, John Aprea...sadly they were NOT the focus of the movie and only allowed this to move from a potential 2 to a 4.

Good acting can only fix so much as well :)

Based on some of the reviews that I have read, I didn't expect this movie to be all that good but I was gladly wrong. Every actor in this film did an amazing job bringing their characters to life which is something that is rare during films these days there's always that one actor that just doesn't get it quite right, but I loved all the performances. I really loved the romance between "Stevie" and Daria I personally love Torrey DeVitto which was why I watched this movie and I think she and Chris did an amazing job chemistry wise. The hit-man were a great add for the comedic aspect of the movie, you will possibly find yourself chuckling at their antics. Jumping back a little, I LOVED how the movie started with the black screen and someone telling the audience that Stevie is dead, that really drew me in and made me pity the character more and more throughout the film. I also loved near the end where everything was coming to be making you really sit at the edge of your seat.

The only thing that I do agree with from the critics is the length. I do think it was a tad bit long for the plot to not be so complex, but with that being said every scene flowed together nicely, there wasn't anything that looked out of order or out of place.

All in all I thought that this was a great film to watch, it's in the mix of a romcom but not quite haha. 7/10 Stars

Chris Cordone does a great job here, playing two entirely different characters who just happen to look alike. And he wrote and directed the movie too, so this just adds to how great his work is. It's kind of a silly formula but it works for me, and everything he has done is worthwhile.

Here's the real proof of how much I enjoyed the movie: as I would look to see how much time was left, the end of the movie was in sight and I didn't want it to be over.

And yet something happened that made the ending kind of a disappointment, so I no longer felt the way I had felt. But that's okay because things got better.

I recognized Hal Linden, who I knew so well as Barney Miller. I've thought I saw him before, but this time it was really him. And he's still got it. As of whenever this movie was made.

And there were plenty of other good performances from leading actors. Let's not forget the hit men, who seem a little threatening but can't seem to do anything right.

And we do get to see Lenny act in a real movie. He's actually good!

The music was great. Mostly jazz, and I don't mean smooth jazz.

Is this family friendly? Not really. There are the scenes in the strip club, and in the version I saw the sound goes out a lot while the mouth of the character speaking is blurry. But I get the impression a lot of words were left out that would be fine on broadcast TV.

This was a very funny movie.

A watchable vanity project for the writer, director, lead actor but whether it leads to anything more substantial is highly debatable, since the characters were mostly cliches, the situations were full of 'just happens to' moments, like a commercial actor on tv just happens to look exactly like a spoiled trust fund kid who just happens to be in an unfortunate accident, and the actor just happens to be paired with a gangster type gumba who just happens to want to be an actor so they can have a bond that becomes a plot point... on and on. His skill at playing two diametrically opposed characters that he himself created should have been more pronounced, but he cant get beyond the one dimensional limitations he wrote for them. An EXTREMELY nice, thoughtful, helpful, caring guy who seriously, not sarcastically, uses a word like 'lovely' when speaking to a women vs an EXTREMELY obnoxious, narcissistic spoiled brat who belittles everyone around him and tows bikini babes around like they are his pets. That being said, he is watchable and likable as the nice guy and is assured some nice lifetime movie channel (is that still on?) cheesy romantic comedies in the near future.