Brooklyn Rules Details

* * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

[Highly rated reviewer]

Surprisingly Good!! And it doesn't want to be "Goodfellas"!!,

Quite a few of the movie critic's reviews seem disappointed that this isn't a 'mob' movie. This turned out to be a surprising plus for the me, since we have 'The Godfather', 'GoodFellas', 'Donnie Brasco', 'Mean Streets' and many glorious years of 'The Sopranos' in the can already.

What we have here is an interesting take on the lives of 3 pre-teen thru early adulthood guys who were and remain best friends. The tag of stereotype always strikes me as odd, because these people really do exist. They have little different niches in their lives that shape them differently, but the roots are in their neighborhood's and surroundings.

This just in, apparently there IS a mob presence in inner NYC, and Brookyln in particular. If you live there it permeates around you. A person from the 'burbs' of St. Paul probably never got that punched in the gut feeling from having a 'made guy' just happen to choose the seat next to you in the movies or local bar. Just because this isn't a 'mob' movie doesn't mean the mob is not a character. Some people feel it's allure, some are repelled by it, others have to exist around it.

That is the tipping point for the characterizations in the movie. I liked the performances from all the cast. Freddie Prinze showed he can play a grown up and handled the narration well. While not afraid to bend some rules, he knew he wanted to get to a higher plane in life. Jerry Ferrara (from 'Entourange')saw a smaller circle, but one that included a cute wife, an OK job and his friends. Scottie Caan felt the pull of the mob life and while not jumping in feet first, wanted to give it a try. All the characters felt real to me, and I enjoyed the story telling. Nice jobs by Alex Baldwin and Mena Surari as well.

I felt bad, sometimes sad, kinda happy and bummed out. That's all I'm after in a movie, to care about the characters I'm spending time with, so nice job!!

predictable

This film tells a predictable and pretty cliche'd story from the perspective of an annoying, young Italian American Michael (Prinze Jr.) playing a college student with a part time job in a butchers, a victim of his surroundings trying to keep his nose clean in Brooklyn. He only has 2 friends, one of which is a vain wannabe gangster with a penchant for crap jumpers, the other's a boring non-entity of a character who has problems writing job application forms.

It goes on, stealing ideas from Goodfellas and Carlito's Way and executing them in a much worse, rather tedious style...

There are much better films than this, It's nothing special. Watching it felt like I was watching the film adaptation of a book - the kind of book you read, then watch the film and complain about how the book was far superior.