Mobsters (1991)

I understand that the movie is aimed at a younger audience than classics like "Godfather" and "Once Upon A Time In America". In fact the young 'all star' cast (almost a mafia version of "Young Guns") is the real point of the movie. But "Mobsters" casts a bunch of young pretty-boys (I include Dempsey in this category as a "fresh young face")in roles that are far over their heads and out of their collective reach. The movie tries very, very hard to convince us that these fellows are street-tough, hardened future mob leaders, but frankly, Slater and Grieco and company (as portrayed here) would get their tails kicked by the shop class students from my high school.

Before I saw this movie, I considered myself to be a fan of Christian Slater, Patrick Dempsey and Richard Grieco, and I was hoping for good things from all of them. But after watching this ill-considered melange of gangster movie clichés, I was instead convinced that none of these actors are any better than the material (and director) they have to work with and that their previous successes were happy accidents. And in spite of the historical resonance of its source material, the writer and director of "Mobsters" just don't give them anything worthwhile to work with. "I just set the cameras up and let them roll, OK?"

The movie suffers from a lack of compelling detail - both in the plot and in the way the actors inhabit the characters - in journaling the formation of these characters. Face it, in real life they were psychos, thieves, murderers and sociopaths and they did a lot of damage to American society. So the only reason to admire and emulate them is for of their toughness, cunning and tenacity in overcoming the odds and out-thinking and outmaneuvering their competition. But the movie gets lazy - it takes huge liberties with the source material, and substitutes a simple revenge motif for Luciano's overwhelming drive to dominate. As for the supposed masterstrokes of betrayal, strategy and double-dealing that Slater and company employ to cause their rivals' downfall, well...I've heard of more complex double dealings and betrayals in a junior high school girl's locker room. (From my sisters and girlfriends, of course...I wasn't there personally!) And the acting choices are essentially lazy too...I have to blame the director for this, since I've seen all these young actors do good work elsewhere.

It's not that the movie is unwatchable...no movie with Quinn and Gambon in it could ever be completely bad, and the rest of the cast is too professional for that to happen. It's just that the movie has no heart or guts or attention span. I also hate that it completely wastes Dempsey (who was engagingly resourceful, smart, quirky, and funny in previous roles and is none of those things here) and it pretends that the "Young (Tommy)guns are smarter and more interesting than Anthony Quinn and Michael Gambon. This is obviously not the case to anyone with eyes.

Don't waste your time with "Mobsters" if you want to watch movies about the Mafia. Stick with the classics. And pray that Slater comes to his senses someday and turns his career around, and that someone gives Dempsey another chance in a real movie someday - Dempsey's movie career apparently cratered with "Mobsters"...fortunately seems to have landed on his feet and moved permanently into television projects.

Fmovies: This movie never seems to develop enough of its characters or of its plot to even be considered as a quality film. The actors never seem authentic as "mobsters", especially Patrick Dempsey as Meyer Lansky, and to a lesser extent, Christian Slater as Lucky Luciano, a character portrayed much better by Andy Garcia in "Hoodlum." The script is incredibly weak and even classic actors such as Anthony Quinn, Michael Gambon, and F. Murray Abraham are unable to save this horrific movie. However, the film's best performances come from Michael Gambon, Christopher Penn, Costas Mandylor, and surprisingly Richard Grieco as Bugsy Siegel. For better gangster flicks, and better movies period I recommend "Scarface", "Hoodlum", "Carlito's Way", "The Godfather" series, and "Goodfellas", just to name a few.

This movie could have been much better if it stuck to the facts related to all the real characters portrayed. The only reason one might take in this travesty on fact is to pick out all the "it didn't happen that way" episodes. Also, one must wonder what ever happened to Vito Genovese who was entirely left out. Genovese being Luciano's right hand man and later under boss. A joke, was the renaming of Marranzano to Farranzano. This viewer chuckled every time his name was mentioned. As far as fact goes, that misnaming was just one of many blunders. For example to name a few: Marran ooops Farranzano was not responsible for Luciano being left for dead. This episode happened when Luciano was very young and it's not clear who was responsible.

No, Luciano's crowd didn't kill Mad dog Cole. The scene in Marran oops Farranzano's office is again a joke. Marranzano (gotta use his real name) was shot and stabbed by 4 Jewish gunman posing as police officers. He wasn't thrown out a window.

Tommy Reina was not killed because he set Luciano up. Maseria had Reina, who was a Maseria ally, killed for business reasons. It had nothing to do with Luciano.

Interested in what really happened during these times? Read Joe Valachi's book "The Valachi Papers", it covers this world A to Z.

It's a shame that Anthony Quinn, a great actor was caught up in this towards the end of his career. He was fine, but all surrounding actors, including Christian Slater seemed to be miss cast.

Two stars only

Mobsters fmovies. Mobsters casts four young players of the day as four of the legendary gangland figures of the 20th Century in their salad days. Christian Slater, Patrick Dempsey, Richard Grieco, and Costas Mandylor play Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Frank Costello respectively. The film is a fictionalized account of how the four of them wound up on top of the gangland heap.

Michael Gambon and Anthony Quinn play the two old style Mobsters who are rivals for the title of boss of all bosses in the New York City area. Playing Charles Ferranzano and Joe Masseria the two of them control most of the illegal liquor trade which gave organized crime in this country it's real foothold. But our young men prove to be tough, smart and resilient as they play off the two old bosses against the middle.

Mobsters as a film captures the ambiance of New York during prohibition very well. I'm not sure I would have cast Christian Slater as Lucky Luciano, still Slater does very well with the part. Richard Grieco as Bugsy Siegel is very good, you can see the genesis of Warren Beatty's character when he played Siegel in his film, Bugsy.

Note should also be mentioned of F. Murray Abraham as Twenties gambler Arnold Rothstein who was the initial sponsor of the young mobsters in training. And Nick Sadler is one frightening Mad Dog Coll. You'll see quite graphically where his nickname came from.

Mobsters is good viewing, not exactly historically accurate, but actually sticks closer to the truth than most films of this type.

This is a good mafia movie,with good story telling,good acting and good atmosphere.I really enjoy mafia movies,and therefore I think this movie is underrated.The story is not unlike other mafia movies,about robbing each other and killing everyone in the way,but off course with class. Highly underrated,good movie.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. Everyone says that the characters were too young, but that's how young Lucky and the guys really were. Christian Slater was actually a couple of years older than Lucky at the time the movie was set. The age of the characters adds to the amazing ability of the kids to "succeed" the way that they did. All in all, the movie was a lot of fun. Even if you don't care for the movie itself, you can definitely appreciate the determination of these four guys and the power and strength of their friendship. The movie is fast paced and fun to watch, so it does a great job of keeping you entertained. It doesn't hurt to have four hot guys with power and guns, either.