18 Shades of Dust

This is one of a number of films that genuinely upset me. The problem is almost foretold in the title: "18 Shades of Dust." Here is a film of much worth, the acting is very fine from Danny Aiello, and is of a high standard from others. The directing ranges from brilliant to very ordinary, but is mostly good.

The script is wonderful, with moments of true brilliance and generally good to exceptional dialogue. Only the story lets it down, after growing strongly and developing entertainingly, it reaches an early zenith, but with so many peaks and byways, it eventually stalls, and stumbles into a labyrinth of theatrical clichés.

This was a film school exercise on how to make a bad gangster movie. Add a lot of arty soul searching mixed up with some faux Catholicism, throw in some utter low budget sets and techniques and you have another utterly forgettable mob movie. Danny Aiello mixes it up with same Italian gangster character types you'd see on the Sopranos. Good actors wasted on this vanity effort by Danny Aiello's son or grandson or whatever! Heavy mob movies have to be good to get any respect.

This was a disappointing film. Danny Aiello gives his usual fine performance, but the script foundered in a sea of Mafia clichés, lame sub-Tarantino dialogue, rambling and unnecessary voiceovers, and sophomoric speculations about religion.