Hoods

I happened to stumble upon this movie by accident one night while I was flipping through the channels and I got caught up in the film right from the very beginning. It looked like it was going to be a good mafia/comedy film full of surprises and humorous plot twists and I got what I expected for the first hour. Then, the film went totally downward and decided to change from an entertaining and interesting comedy to a tragic drama filled with sorrow and a few un-answered questions. The acting was fantastic. Kevin Pollak was the scene-stealer as a mafia hitman opposite Joe Mantegna, who was equally good. You can't blame the actors because they all were good. Joe Pantoliano portrays an insane hitman who "HATES FRENCH CIGARETTES AND FRENCH MODEL AIRPLANES" and it is a remarkable performance. However, the last half hour began to get worse and worse every minute because it never got back to the subplots of the coffee shop owner who wanted to "trouble" his competitor by using his mafia pals and the tobacco shop owner's son who was brutally assaulted by a hitman because the son accidentally bit the hitman's crotch. What happens? You never find out. Maybe in a sequel? I doubt one will ever exist because no one really cares about this movie. After seeing the whole thing, I can understand why. Best Scene: A hitman walks up to the godfather and says "I quit" and the godfather begins to swing his arms around in a circle and pushes them in the hitman's face and says "OOOH, The hitman burns!!!"

Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I sat down through this painful seriocomedy about the Famiglia in Brooklyn. It never manages to be really funny. Black humor requires balancing gross and witty, and the latter is lacking in spades. As for the admittedly cool cast, they have all known better days. For instance, Pantoliano and Tilly in "Bound". Kevin Pollak is a unique actor with a peculiar physique whose most interesting work by far is his youtube podcast the Kevin Pollak Chat Show. Joe Mantegna should have known better than producing this. It's so much better to appear in a cameo in a good movie than to star in a mediocre one, which is what he does in "Hoods". Last but not least, notice that Mantegna's father, important character in the plot, is played by no less than Seymour Cassel, but you won't find his name in the credits. He might have needed the money but sure as hell he didn't want to be remembered for his portrayal of this raving paranoid godfather. In short, this is not "The Sopranos".

I just called my brother Paulie on the phone and he said he was watching Hoods and it was funny. So, like I said, never go against the family! The demand for more lines is OK since I like to express my own opinions quite frequently. If something is misspelled it's most likely my eyesight and not my brain. This gives me yet another chance to take my shots at "The Departed". When one knows exactly what is going to happen in the last scene with no prior knowledge, that usually means it wasn't all that suspenseful. All you need is a good directer,the same guy I believe who did my favorite mob movie, "Goodfellows), but in a completely different way.And then just throw in Jack the great and you got yourself an Oscar. Easy as pie. I have to see hoods to make sure it wasn't better than "The Departed" Gibbs

is forced to conform to 90 minutes TV time. Marvelous cast of tremendous talent and a script that starts out with great potential. I really enjoyed the first 65 minutes and then someone fired the writers and a very engaging member of the cast was bumped off by a dropped gun. Cm'on, H-wood, you don't get that many good scripts so don't screw up a rare one that has quality possibilities.