Kill the Irishman (2011)

Very Cool!!!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

One of my all time favorites.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

For many of us who grew up in Cleveland during the Mafia Wars and remember quite well the bombings and killings, it is too bad that this wasn't filmed at the locations where events occurred in and around Cleveland. It takes away from a great story written by Rick Porello, and a pretty damn good movie. I can't help but make faces and be annoyed by the drastic differences between the "film locations" and the "actual locations".

I'm not too sure just how much of Kill The Irishman is based in actual truth, but if even half of what we see on screen did happen, that is some pretty impressive stuff. The film focuses on the life of Danny Greene (a bulked, sturdy Ray Stevenson), who was an Irish American mobster working out of Cleveland back in the 70's, a guy who seems to have caused quite a stir of chaos amongst organized crime back then. Getting a leg up from the longshoreman's union, Danny quickly rose to power alongside several other key figures including numbers man John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio), enforcer Joe Manditski (Val Kilmer) and nasty kingpin Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken). It seems it all went south pretty quick though, because before he knew it he was at odds with Birns, and dodging multiple brash assassination attempts coming at him from all directions. What's remarkable about Danny's story is his sterling resilience: something like over a dozen attempts were made on his life and the darn mick just kept on going, even taunting the underworld between car bomb blasts and raucous shoot outs. Of course, such a life alienates him from his wife (Linda Cardellini) and puts him in perpetual crosshairs, but Stevenson plays it casually cavalier, a gentleman gangster who really cares not for the danger he's wading into, and treads lightly amongst the mess, making me wonder if the real Greene had such an attitude and the sheer luck to back it up. Walken is quiet and dangerous in a somewhat underplayed role, but he is entertaining doing anything, so it's all good. The cast is enormous, and includes the like of Vinnie Jones as a bruiser of an Irish street soldier, Robert Davi in an explosive third act cameo as a lethal specialist brought in to neutralize Danny, and your usual kennel of Italian American character actors like Mike Starr, Bob Gunton, Tony Lo Bianco, Steve Schirippa, Paul Sorvino and others. It's loud, fast paced and ever so slightly tongue in cheek. As a crime drama it works great, could have been slightly longer, but Stevenson keeps things moving briskly with his affable, hyperactive performance and it goes with out saying that the rest of them provide excellent supporting work.

In a flashforward to 1975, Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) survives a car bomb attempt in Cleveland. In 1960, he and friends Billy McComber and Art Sneperger are longshoremen. He takes on corrupt union boss Jerry Merke who doesn't care about the working members. Sneperger is in gambling debt to Cleveland Mafia John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Danny offers to help him steal from the docks. Danny takes over the union and marries Joan (Linda Cardellini). Police Detective Joe Manditski (Val Kilmer) takes him down and he's banned from unions. He gets work from loan shark Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken). After a dispute over money, he gets into a car bombing war with New York mobsters. He gains notoriety as the "Robin Hood of Collinwood" surviving multiple murder attempts.This is very much a Goodfellas wannabe including a "Based on a True Story" moniker. There isn't anything wrong with aspiring to be one of the best films of all times. It's got plenty of solid actors in the many supporting roles. D'Onofrio is a standout although it may be trying to fit in too many characters. As for Ray Stevenson, he has a really powerful presence. He's a hulking man. The movie has minor flaws here and there that keeps it from being a truly great mobster movie. Some of the side characters need to step up. The wife and mistress are bland. The movie doesn't always flow well but it's a good watch.

I absolutely loved Ray Stevenson in the HBO Series ROME, where he played a Roman soldier named Titus Pullo. Pullo was the original tough guy with a heart of gold, a guy who could be breaking skulls one minute and playing with children the next, and never be anything less than real and sympathetic.So when I watched KILL THE IRISHMAN, I was expecting Ray Stevenson to really shine. Yet I was disappointed, because Danny Greene is really not a lovable tough guy. He's more like a driven psycho who kills over and over, not because he's cornered, or even because he wants a bigger piece of the pie, but just because he has some messianic delusion that only he can "save" the city of Cleveland from the Italian mob. This is all very interesting, (the Irish tendency not so much towards violence itself, but suicidal religious fanaticism) yet the character is so cold and almost fanatical that Ray Stevenson can't really get a grip. And yes, this is the only movie I've ever seen where the leading man's hair is so stringy, lifeless and weird looking that it's fall down laughing funny.Meanwhile, the movie hits you over the head with comic stupidity at every turn, so what should be a tense mob thriller becomes almost like a dark comedy. The characters all live in the Seventies, drive Fifties cars and have Sixties haircuts. The soundtrack see-saws back and forth in a zany sort of way between comically upbeat Irish jigs (when someone's getting beaten to death or blown up) and generic Philadelphia-style Soul Music (whenever someone's driving in his car.)There are so many things that make no sense. Danny Greene is supposed to be tough, okay. Smart, okay. But everyone else is just plain dumb. Early in the picture, a big goon wearing glasses pulls a gun on him, and Danny just says, "hey now. Put it down." So the guy does. Then Danny beats him up and kills him! Good thing he thought of telling the bad guy to put the gun down, huh? Is that all it takes in Cleveland? A guy with a genuinely crazy persona, like Mel Gibson, might have made you believe this guy is nuts and even tough guys are afraid of him. It's funny, everyone says this movie is a bad version GOODFELLAS, but it reminded me much more of PAYBACK starring Mel Gibson. And TERROR AT RED WOLF INN, because it's so bad it's funny.