Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits

I seem among commenters to be alone as someone who came into this movie not as a Sopranos fan, but as a Larry Blamire fan—I've only seen The Sopranos once. It was good, but not enough for me to get cable hooked up again.

So no, I come in as a rabid Skeleteer, a fan of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". And I was *going* to quote my IMDb review of Lost Skeleton, wondering what Blamire's directing style was like when he was shooting for himself and not emulating a style or genre, but looking at it, I see I never actually made that query in that review, so apparently I'm going to have to quote a hallucination.

It is *definitely* a question I had in mind after one of my (large but still finite number)th viewing of Lost Skeleton: if he's shooting a movie for its own sake, how would he do it? The answer is: extremely well. When you take the camera off lockdown, he moves it sensibly, a welcome relief from the vertigo-inducing roller-coaster Peter Jackson used on 'King Kong' or the attention-deficit jump-cuttery of Michael (spitspit) Bay. Personally, I found his technique reminiscent of Altman: the camera moves with purpose, not just because it can. The violence is handled with care: real enough to underscore the plot, not so real as to derail the comedy.

I'm looking forward to further non-genre projects in addition to The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, Dark and Stormy Night, and whatever else he may have in mind.

The writing—heck, I'm still giggling over "Some of the biggest comedians in the world have done comedy!" It's perfect. Some of the … well, it's too twisted to be a simple 'turn of a phrase'. Some of the phrasing is very reminiscent of Lost Skeleton. Like the directing, however, when freed from the restrictions of the genre, we see whole new dimensions to Blamire's work.

John Fiore dove in all the way to the character of Johnny Slade. I can't even begin to think of how many takes it required in studio to get a clean take on those lyrics. He's completely committed to the character, and so is Vincent Curatola as the mysterious and weirdly creative Mr. Samantha, and watching their interactions as their relationship evolves over the course of the movie is terrific.

Highly recommended, whatever the title (it'll always be "Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits" to me—"Meet the Mobsters" just doesn't swing). It's funny all the way through—I had several 'pause for an extended gigglefit' moments.

8/10

This movie is hysterical from the get go! Johnny Slade who is a wannabe lounge singer, is brilliantly played by John Fiore, who is not only funny but charming as well. His character really draws you in and it's fun to watch him and Mr. Samantha played by Vincent Curatola interacting together. There are quite a bunch of Soprano characters in it which of course added the perfect spice in the film as well.

What a brilliant idea for a movie and would love to see a sequel. We definitely need Johnny Slade to get on the big screen. Hopefully this film will get picked and shown in theaters nationwide. Definitely worth watching.

one of the best movies i've seen in a long time! would love to see a sequel to it, the soprano men were good but i have to disagree with the last comment on having more hot babes,Charlie Payne was not only sexy and hot but i would LOVE to see "more" of her and that body! And of course those amazing piercing green eyes,no sequel would be complete without that babe.It was refreshing to see a cleverly made movie with such talented actress's and actors,this movie was funny,intriguing, suspenseful and fun all at the same time.It's to bad we don't see more movies like this. thoughts of a television sitcom come to mind, I'm sure a lot of people would tune in regularly, especially if the actress portraying Charlie Payne is leading!

Saw this at a film festival last week. Wonderful premise for the story, and it builds over time rather than going flat. The audience laughed all the way through and cheered at the end. Johnny's a great character, narcissistic, naive, optimistic, a genuinely nice guy, and a perfect New Jersey-style lounge singer. The film's generously loaded with physical and verbal humor, slapstick violence, delightfully atmospheric (read: dingy) locations, and songs - songs with meaning, passion and, well...meaning, as it turns out. The comedy's paced very differently from sitcom humor, more like stand-up comedian work - that is, lots of jokes, fast paced, comin' at ya before you've squeezed the last chuckle out of the previous one. The print they showed needed much work but the producers/writers present swore they have better ones in the back seat of their car. Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits could be one of these great little indies that has legs. See it if you can!

I just watched this movies and I thought it was hilarious. John Fiore does a great job in the role of Johnny Slade a wannabe lounge singer who ends up working for a mob boss in his new club unknowingly for awhile helping him do his dirty work. The songs are hilarious and the outcomes is funny. Although this movie is low budget you couldn't tell. The filming and the directing are well done and the acting is very professional with great team of actors like John Fiore, Richard Portnow and Vincent Curatola that make this movie worth seeing. I recommend this movie to anyone who would loves comedies. Looks for this movie at your local video store or buy a copy from Amanzon