Synopsis
Angelo’s the good brother, Paulie’s the bad boy. Fed up with waiting tables, Paulieconvinces Angelo and two friends to get into the bookie business. After a few missteps, businessbecomes good. Then it gets very good. Then they hook up with local don, Santo, who issaddled with an extremely volatile son, Vinnie. You can probably guess where all this isheading, and there are certainly no real surprises here. The clearest sign that we’re on familiarterritory is Vinnie, a clone …f the Joe Pesci psycho characters from GoodFellas and Casino.Angelo’s voice-over narration is both cliched and unnecessary. The story grips, however much aretread it is, showing that there is life in this tale yet.
Audio
The soundtrack is first-rate, with excellent music and sound effects. The effects have a strongrear speaker presence, and there are some nice left-right moments as well. There is sometimesa bit of distortion on the dialogue, but nothing too noticeable.
Video
From the original 2.35:1 ratio, the picture has been cropped to 1.33:1, and the result is a realbutchery. The compositions are ruined, sometimes very obviously so, with speakers disappearingoff the frame. The colours, flesh tones and contrasts are all good, but there is the occasionalgrainy moment, and the image could be a bit sharper here and there.
Special Features
Nothing other than the trailer (suffering from a horrible transfer). The menu is basic.
Closing Thoughts
A decent film, with good sound, but badly served by the picture ratio.
Special Features List
- Trailer
