http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116378/

i know what you're thinking, but this is a much-loved feature and i don't like cheapening my filmpinions by sticking them in a communal thread where you all talk balls.

was very dubious at first. for those who haven't seen it, it's a 1996 gangster film starring Christophe Walken. y'know the sort - angry italian-americans running around on revenge missions with guns whilst heavy women relatives voice their disapproval occasionally. once you get past he first half-hour of every gangster film cliche being chucked in, it's actually very good.

as well as Walken, there's about five people out of the Sopranos - Artie Bucco plays quite a major role, some car dealership bird Tony was boffing at one point, Carmela and Vito have very small roles, one other who i forget. think Walken's wife was casting director on the Sopranos or sutin, idk.

it's pretty short, and not filmed in sequence, doesn't follow the standard rise to power theme of other gangster films and has a pretty great ending. it's got Benicio Del Toro in it aswell, and a young Gretchen Mol, though she doesn't get her jubblies out. Vincent Gallo's the star of the show, though.

only slight issue i had with it was the casting of Chris Penn (RIP), who despite winning a couple of awards is pretty unconvincing as an Italian and just shouts like Joe Pesci a bit. he kinda makes up for it as the film progresses, though.

anyway, i kinda liked it. i've seen most of the films of this genre, obviously it's hard for most of them to compare to the first two films of the Godfather trilogy or Goodfellas, but this has a certain charm, and despite being a huge box office flop (it only made about 10% of its budget) i reckon it's a kind of writers' gangster flick, and has probably been a bit more influntial on films and dramas since than some of the bigger names.

8.4/10