The Rat Pack Reviews

Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr and Angus MacFadyen as Peter Lawford. You don't really believe it's them until they go on stage at one of JFK's fundraisers and sing High Hopes, JFK gives a speech, Marilyn coos and the movie snaps into gear. Less flashy but far more interesting than Scorsese's Casino or GoodFellas, the film explores Sinatra's twin links to the Mob and to Jack and Robert Kennedy, compromised when JFK enters the White House and when RFK declares war on organised crime. The pulse of the era is beautifully evoked as Sinatra learns the difference between entertaining the nation and running the nation state. Suddenly, the spectre of assassination looms over everyone's head, but when a mobster is urged to bump off Sinatra he thinks for a minute and says, “Naah, I wanna to hear him sing Chicago again.”

Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr and Angus MacFadyen as Peter Lawford. You don't really believe it's them until they go on stage at one of JFK's fundraisers and sing High Hopes, JFK gives a speech, Marilyn coos and the movie snaps into gear. Less flashy but far more interesting than Scorsese's Casino or GoodFellas, the film explores Sinatra's twin links to the Mob and to Jack and Robert Kennedy, compromised when JFK enters the White House and when RFK declares war on organised crime. The pulse of the era is beautifully evoked as Sinatra learns the difference between entertaining the nation and running the nation state. Suddenly, the spectre of assassination looms over everyone's head, but when a mobster is urged to bump off Sinatra he thinks for a minute and says, “Naah, I wanna to hear him sing Chicago again.”