A lot of drama is aspired to in this mob story, and some of it is achieved. Despite the dead-serious storyline, humor inadvertently enters when debt collector Vinnie (Jaren Anderson) can't do his job because, as his mobster dad observes, he has blinders on. This means he has careless sex with those he's supposed to collect from, and thus begins one plot. Vinnie picks up ex-con brother Gio (Matthias Cassar) and plenty of smoochy paisan, alpha-male bonding follows. The movie's mob bosses come off best, acting-wise, and Flavio Romeo as the boys' father supplies effective presence, speaks Italian, and adds some depth to the family storyline. Meanwhile, a gang war looms on the horizon and bumbling rogue cops decide to take down everybody. This "King of New York" element creates some legitimate suspense in parts, especially when smug officers' have to collect deadly evidence. The movie has some memorable dialogue: ("He's a sh*t stain on his family tree"), and Depth Charge's favorite: "I don't care if you got two hookers and a mistress giving you r*m jobs every night before bedtime..." Further support comes courtesy of the movie's vivid NYC/New Jersey locations. Unfortunately, gentrified hellhole Times Square makes an appearance; a food court of baseball-capped, selfie-taking gawking tourists who pollute numerous scenes, wobbling out of Dunkin Donuts, Rite-Aids, and Starbucks. This robs the movie of some effective location impact. Luckily, director Michael Fredianelli allows some long shots to zoom into telephoto shots, and this reduces bad background humans to blobs. Fredianelli also gives a great performance as a jealous realtive. He supports the other ethnic faces onscreen (including those of the leads) who possess interesting qualities and don't look like Reality TV graduates. Hannah Beck, as one of Vinnie's lays, has a great death scene. The enormous amount of sexist epithets and nonstop F-bombs will cause even 2025 grandparents (and members of both political parties) to gasp and moan throughout whatever Garden State theater hosts the premiere. An hour in, the dialogue starts adding Shane Black wisecracks, too, which doesn't help the cop story very much. At one point Romeo, who looks in his 70s, tells an immigrant success story to his son that sounds like an anecdote from the 1900s. Still, to those less discriminating fans of action cinema featuring CGI, this will match plenty of pizza and beers. For those looking to enjoy a mob drama that promises masculinity, violence, family themes, plus plenty of unapologetic misogyny--thanks to women characters who are nothing but mostly doomed, abrasive, insulting, promiscuous, fat loudmouths--this'll entertain all-male households across the country. Hey, the women in "Laws of Gravity" hung out with losers, too, and they paid the price.
