Underworld - Vendetta sotterranea

This very underrated film is a great example of modern film noir. It is classic Leary, and I heartily recommend it if you like your gangster movies quirky and twisty. The ending is a shock, and the path to get there, the story told by Dennis Leary's character is a wild ride. Give this film a chance, it deserves it.

I read a review which compared the film unfavourably to Pulp Fiction, it is unfortunate that title was mentioned on the back of the DVD, don't blame anyone but the marketing dept. Underworld has more in common with The Two Jakes than Pulp Fiction. As you can see I loved this film, it gets a massive thumbs up from me.

If there was a list to mark the worst movies in history (actually there is on this page), I think Underworld could probably top that list. Given, Denis Leary put on a great job, shooting people and making wisecracks, the movie had no direction and I don't even think the director knew what the hell to do with it. This script belongs in a wastebasket. When one man makes your movie somewhat (remember I said somewhat) watchable.....there's problems.

GRADE: F

I share the same opinion regarding Underworld as the previous comment.

I sat through the 1.5 hours of this movie wondering what this story was all about and more importantly why the author and/or director had made certain decisions for the plot. On the whole I found the movie to be unbalanced, consisting of strange sub-plots which (IMHO) actually had nothing to do with the movie. Furthermore, when writing a thriller I'd say you want your viewers to wonder about the story and not about the way the story is filmed...

This movie is so bad, they wouldn't buy it back at my local used CD/DVD store. I only own it because it came in a box set which I bought for the masterpiece "Deadfall". The store bought back the other two movies I was selling from the four disc set, but they wouldn't buy back Underworld, and those other two movies redefined rank, so what does that say about this movie? So I tried to sell it back to another store, that even bought back budget DVDs that you could buy for a dollar at a local store, but they wouldn't buy back Underworld either. This movie is bad on every level, and is one of those that came out in the post-Tarantino-clone glut of the mid 90's. The only slightly redeemable element is Dennis Leary telling Joe Montegna, that he's a "stinky friend" and calls him "Mister Stinky Friend". That line is so delightfully horrible, that I can't help but quote it at least once a week when describing a stinky friend. But now that I've enlightened you with that quote, you don't have to go thru the pain of watching this movie.

This is one of the best black comedies that I have ever seen!

Oh, it's highly, highly, highly underrated!

I've found the tape in action and in drama, but never in comedy, where I feel that it belongs!

Take for example the first scene involving the Red Car: Slow buildup, absolutely bloody execution, glass and flesh everywhere; and then an approving nod and the gunner exclaiming in nonchalant fashion "This is gonna be the best goddamn father's day I've ever had."

It doesn't stop there. We have the execution of a beyond-amazingly beautiful girl (Traci Lords) for nearly nothing other than a bored antagonist's whim; we don't even really know if she's suspected of cheating on him... he's just... bored.

Add to this a hilarious bar scene that might begin something like "a bunch of assassins walked into a bar..."... they're tired of waiting, so they clean their guns... they're bored at the delay, so they shoot the bottles; they're frustrated at their employer's procrastination, so they pull out automatic weapons and unload on the bar, the bartender... and finally the outright hilarious shot of the scariest of them putting a gun to his head: they shoot each other.

Yes, it's terribly violent; yes, it's not for everyone. But this is the one of the most fabulously overlooked films ever! Awesome!

Check it out, but ignore the section you found it in.