Sinatra Club

With that heartfelt voice-over narration, those camera dissolves, and the song "Cara Mia", the final ten-minute segment has great thematic depth. "At The Sinatra Club" describes real people. I just wish the entire film had been as good as the ending.

A reformed criminal, Salvatore Polisi, whose story this is, and who narrates, gives us one day in his life many years ago as a youthful New York City hoodlum affiliated with the mob, and with John Gotti (Danny Nucci) in particular. In this twenty-four hour period, youthful Mafia dudes argue, verbally duel, clash, growl, pose, shoot the bull, scope each other out, and generally act tough as they prepare for a big heist, only hours away. The plot moves along as a countdown of hours left before the heist.

And most of the action takes place inside the Sinatra Club, a real club back in the early 70s. Too bad that we hear so few Sinatra songs.

The ensemble script is very talky. Dialogue is immense. And almost every other word comes from the four-letter-word dictionary. Coarse language is necessary to make these people seem real. But when such words are overused they distract. Still, these dudes are tough, not just tough talking. With them, every moment, every hour, every day becomes a matter of physical survival, rendered a little easier by guns and strong fists.

The main problems here are a plot that doesn't go anywhere, unappealing characters, too much dialogue, and a legitimate "my beloved" theme that doesn't come through until those final ten minutes. All of which relate to the film's script, which may have been constrained by budget. Danny Nucci gives a fine performance as a young John Gotti. Costumes, sets, and cinematography are fine.

It is 1972 and the Mafia crime families are at war, but that is not enough to stop a young, unknown John Gotti (Danny Nucci), who has big ideas and even bigger ambitions. In order to put an end to a two decades' conflict, Gotti pulls together an unlikely crew made up of one member from each crime family to pull off a silver bullion heist.

I appreciate that the film is narrated by the real Salvatore Polisi who wrote the book this film is based on. How much is true? How much is exaggerated? How much is cashing in on the name John Gotti? I do not know enough about the Gambino Family to really answer these questions. In fact, the Gambino group may be the one I know the least about (and I generally focus on the Midwest groups). I find it hard to believe they would freely walk around saying they were members of certain families as they do in this film, but I do like the use of slang (like "yeg" for "safe-cracker").

I do know there are some errors, such as saying that Carmine Galante was the Bonanno boss. In 1972, Galante had not taken over yet -- this job was filled by Natale Evola. But it is still a pretty good mob film, although clearly low budget and with Joey Lawrence.

SPOILER: Some former kid actors get to star in some real adult gangster roles as the purported story of John Gotti in the years he was making his bones as a criminal in Sinatra Club. Some Sinatra is heard, but not nearly enough for my taste on the soundtrack.

Jason Gedrick narrates and plays Ubatz aka Sal Polisi, really aka Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano. Obviously Sammy the Bull who is still with us was not given any rights to use his name so it was changed to protect the very guilty, despite the disclaimer this film proudly sports.

The Sinatra Club is a kind of neutral turf where made members of the various crime families meet and socialize and talk shop. It's also where they can be reasonably assured that they won't start whacking each other on premise. Danny Nucci who plays the charismatic young Gotti sees to that.

Nucci as Gotti has the idea to get them all working on a really big heist involving a shipment of silver both in coin and bullion with all the various crews cooperating. The idea is getting a hearing from the bosses as Gotti sells the plan. Of course the inevitable happens as these guys are violent criminals and they've got a lot of their own issues, all played out in this film.

It's neither the best or far from the worst gangster film I've seen even if it was made without Sammy the Bull's consent.

At first we thought it was a parody of a mafia movie but quickly realized it is just a horrible flick with the worst plot and even worse acting. Didn't have the nerves to make it half way through it but what we did see was a bunch of awful acting, most of which around a poker table or the bathroom of "The Sinatra Club". It was really painful to watch and both me and my wife love mafia movies. Don't waste your time (even watching the trailer) or your money. The biggest actor they could find was from an 80's "The Heavenly Kid" as well as one backing actor with a very minor role from "The Sopranos". This is my first movie review on here and this is the movie that prompted me to Sign up because it was so bad (and there are plenty of awful movies in this genre).

Just recently watched this film and I just had to write a review. At first I wasn't sure about watching 'just another' mafia film, however as the story began to unravel I felt extremely drawn in. The actors were fantastic and the way they developed their characters took you on different sub-plots throughout. Although 'the heist' was the main objective of the film, we were able to watch behind enemy lines into the eyes and ears of the underground crime scene. In a lot of recent films I have found my mind wander off and end up missing most of the scenes however this did not happen even once during 'At The Sinatra Club'. In my opinion, films that completely take you out of everyday normal life and make you forget your surroundings deliver the best entertainment! Thanks for a very entertaining and believable account on the early dealings of the infamous John Gotti! Definitely worth a watch!