Chazz Palminteri

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Legend Review

Good

Written and directed with a rakish swagger, and featuring two full-on performances from Tom Hardy, this true London gangster drama is hugely entertaining, even if it feels undercooked. Aside from that generic title, the film basically has no plot at all, and it strips real-life people of their complexity. It's as if the filmmakers were afraid to challenge the audience in any way. But the edgy mix of comedy and violence is riveting.

The events recounted took place over about two years in the early 1960s, although the film's anecdotal structure makes it feel more like a decade. As it begins, the fearsome young Kray brothers (both played by Tom Hardy) are consolidating their gangland grip on East London and expanding around the city, with their next target being South London boss Charlie Richardson (Paul Bettany). Reggie Kray is the tough-minded businessman, while identical twin Ronnie is a terrifying thug who happens to be openly gay at a time when being so was illegal. As they blatantly manipulate the rule of law, a Scotland Yard inspector (Christopher Ecclestone) is desperately looking for a way to take them down. Meanwhile, Reggie is romancing the 16-year-old Frances (Emily Browning), much to the annoyance of her imperious mother (Tara Fitzgerald).

The tumultuous relationship between Reggie and Frances is the only thing that adds a sense of narrative momentum to the film. Otherwise, it's a series of set-pieces that take a darkly humorous approach to family clashes and criminal violence. Writer-director Brian Helgeland infuses even the grisliest brutality with an amusing smirk, which makes the movie much more engaging than expected. And Hardy storms through the film with real charisma in both roles, as the steely, magnetic Reggie and the more unstable, fearsome Ronnie. Both performances are scene-stealing, nicely conveying how these men managed to hold the entire city in their grip, even though they were only in their early 30s at the time.

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Legend - First Look Trailer


Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, London was at the mercy of the terrifying Kray twins (Tom Hardy). Reggie Kray was forced to spend most of his life holding back his identical twin brother, Ronnie, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. As acclaimed night club owners and feared gangsters, the two twins were seen to own London, and lived a life of glitz and glamour, as well as blood and brutality. That is, until Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read (Christopher Eccleston) took the task of bringing two of the most powerful and dangerous criminals in the city's history to justice, by any means necessary. 

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Video - Samuel L. Jackson And Kate Bosworth Seen Outside The Museum Of The Moving Image In New York


'Avengers' star Samuel L. Jackson and 'Homefront' actress Kate Bosworth with husband Michael Polish were among the star-studded arrivals at the Museum Of The Moving Image's 28th Annual Salute in New York, which this year was honouring 'House Of Cards' actor Kevin Spacey.

Continue: Video - Samuel L. Jackson And Kate Bosworth Seen Outside The Museum Of The Moving Image In New York

Chazz Palminteri Wednesday 22nd June 2011 Chazz Palminteri out and about in Manhattan New York City, USA

Chazz Palminteri

Chazz Palminteri Thursday 8th May 2008 The Rainforest Foundation Funds 'Some Kinda Legacy' benefit party held at the Plaza hotel New York City, USA

Chazz Palminteri

Running Scared Review


Good
Like Paul Walker's character in it, Running Scared is a lot smarter than it looks. Unfortunately, it spends as much time being dumb as acting dumb, making for an experience that can be as frustrating as it is entertaining. The film is basically three different movies: One, a straightforward crime drama, probably its strongest suit. Two, a satire of the genre, working on many levels from Peckinpah-esque examination of the male psyche to urban Grimm fairy tale. And, sadly, three, a genuinely clunky thriller. Unfortunately, you never know which you'll get from scene to scene, or even moment to moment.Paul Walker plays Joey Gazelle (Get it? He runs. This would be the less clever part.), a family man in suburban Jersey who also happens to work for the local mob. After a deal gone wrong ends up with a lot of dead people, some of them dirty cops, Joey is charged with his usual task of disposing of the gun that killed said cops. Joey, however, has been stashing the guns he's supposed to have ditched as an "insurance policy." When his son Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and his neighbor's kid Oleg (Cameron Bright) witness him adding the weapon to his collection, Oleg sees an opportunity to settle the score with his abusive father, Anzor (Karel Roden).Soon, Anzor is wounded, Oleg is on the run, and Joey has one night to get the gun back or end up dead at the hands of his own people. Since Nicky might know where to find Oleg, what ensues is the worst Take Your Kid To Work Day ever.Writer/director Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) displays an appetite for flashy camera tricks, but we're not in Domino territory here, thank God. Unlike Tony Scott, Kramer shows some restraint and variety, but the frequent double exposures still wear thin. Just as often, though, he creates intimate spaces where his characters can interact, isolated from the surrounding chaos.The writing varies from sly satire to witless implausibility. Chazz Palminteri's character, a dirty cop, steps into more than one commercial parody in the film, making a passing reference to the actor's own Vanilla Coke ad in the process. At the same time the film relies far too much on coincidence to further the plot.The performances here are all adequate. Walker shows that he can do a convincing Jersey accent. Vera Farmiga's performance as Joey's wife is uneven, but effective when it really counts. Bright pulls off the eerie thousand-yard stare of a kid who's seen too much at home, and so is unfazed by the monsters he encounters in the real world.The deliberate nature of some of Kramer's choices suggest something bubbling under the surface. He sets a key action scene in a hockey rink, a place of socially acceptable violence. Anzor has a tattoo of John Wayne on his back, and carries an obsession with the actor that might serve as a commentary on film violence. References to ultra-violent films like Scarface surface from time to time. It's clear that Kramer's trying to say something, but what?Unlike Revolver, which pretentiously aspires to levels it never achieves, Running Scared aspires to levels it occasionally achieves without ever taking itself too seriously, and while being massively entertaining even when it's not making a whole lot of sense. Kramer's sophomore effort shows flashes of brilliance but smacks of an artist still working out what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. It may not be Peckinpah, but if you're a fan of the genre, it's probably worth a look.The DVD includes a commentary track, storyboards, and behind-the-scenes featurette.Sitting unscared.

One Eyed King Review


Bad
Making your first feature film ain't easy. Assemble a decent, if not strong, cast, as writer/director Robert Moresco has done with One Eyed King, and you're already ahead of the game. But rehash old plot lines, tired dialogue, and standard clichés, and a well-intentioned effort such as this one could jeopardize your chance at a second feature film.

How many more movies do we need about a rough neighborhood full of lifelong friends hopelessly turned to crime or worse? The enormous catalog of such movies might dissuade a filmmaker from making yet another, but here we have it. Again. Five Irish kids in NYC's Hell's Kitchen make an overemotional pact over some stolen rings on an anonymous rooftop. With teary music. And slow motion. In the film's first scene.

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Analyze This Review


Weak

Yes, "Analyze This" has many generous burstsof hilarity, especially with Robert De Niro goofing on the kind of mobsterroles that made him by playing a mafioso with high anxiety.

Yes, casting him as a hoodlum headcase opposite Billy Crystalas his reluctant shrink is damn funny all by itself.

No, this isn't enough to carry the picture. In fact "AnalyzeThis" degrades so dramatically that in the last act Crystal is reducedto ad libbing through an over-long mock-wise guy schtick, taking his bestshot at Robin Williams-dom and tanking.

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Stuart Little Review


Weak

Fans of "Stuart Little," the classic E. B. White's children's book about a congenial little mouse with a wind-up red roadster, would be wise to avoid "Stuart Little," the mostly in-name-only big screen adaptation featuring Michael J. Fox's voice emanating from a computer-animated Stuart.

Nearly everything delightful about the book is erased or painted over here with near-plotless kiddie fare, predictably zany adventures and deliberately ham-fisted acting from a wildly talented cast (Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, Jeffrey Jones, Allyce Beasley, Estelle Getty, Julia Sweeney), entirely wasted on a Saturday morning cartoon script.

Ironically co-written by M. Night Shyamalan (the writer-director of "The Sixth Sense"), the story opens with Mr. and Mrs. Little on their way to an orphanage to pick out a kid for no explored reason. Won over by the home's least likely resident -- a talking mouse named Stuart with a miniature wardrobe and a pithy personality -- they take him home, where his new brother George (Jonathan Lipnicki from "Jerry Maguire") gives him the cold shoulder and the family cat (voiced obnoxiously by Nathan Lane) tries to eat him.

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Chazz Palminteri

Chazz Palminteri Quick Links

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Actor


Chazz Palminteri Movies

Legend Movie Review

Legend Movie Review

Written and directed with a rakish swagger, and featuring two full-on performances from Tom Hardy,...

Legend - First Look Trailer

Legend - First Look Trailer

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, London was at the mercy of the terrifying Kray twins...

Running Scared Movie Review

Running Scared Movie Review

Like Paul Walker's character in it, Running Scared is a lot smarter than it looks....

Analyze This Movie Review

Analyze This Movie Review

Yes, "Analyze This" has many generous burstsof hilarity, especially with Robert De Niro goofing on...

Stuart Little Movie Review

Stuart Little Movie Review

Fans of "Stuart Little," the classic E. B. White's children's book about a congenial little...

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