Iceman Movie

I have watched so many bad mafia or gangster flicks the last 10 years plus…I couldn’t stomach another.  Not one f@cking more.  Really the ending of The Sopranos was the high water mark for me.  They truck in Frank Vincent or Vincent Pastore into these two million dollar flops to spice up the movie poster and play us enthusiasts into parting $6 for an On Demand rental.  I have seen better porn flicks than these made for tv mob dramas.  I have seen better mob themed porn flicks.

All that said, I had to do some work the other day and decided to stream an Amazon Prime freebie.  I kept seeing the Iceman movie recommended to me and I gave in.  Now I have seen the documentaries and interviews on the Iceman himself, Richard Kuklinski.  You can find them easily and for free on Youtube.  If half of what Kuklinski himself said he did is true…he is a stone cold psychopathic killer.

That all said, this was a great movie and a great surprise.  They definitely glossed over his horrendous acts and portrayed him a sympathetic character.  That was a stretch. However, the acting all around was top notch.  Ray Liotta had a small but crucial role and he was nearly Goodfellas great.  I was very happy about that because he has been in some stinkers since Copland.  Chris Evans was so good as Mr. Freezy the ice cream maniac killer…I couldn’t believe it.  Gave me a whole new appreciation of Captain America’s abilities.

The main thing I enjoyed here is it was more of a gritty 70s mob flick than just a loose cannon psycho walking around.  It was very Donnie Brasco esque.  I was surprised they did not work John Gotti into this thing at some point.  Why can’t they do that?  Just like they do Marvel universe.  Do the different five families and have cameos and then an all out mob war movie like The Avengers where it all comes together.  That would be take my money shit.

June 15th 2018: We See Gotti on the Big Screen

I will say I have no idea what or who Vertical Entertainment is.  It may be a made up thing.  But it seems to be pushing this Gotti flick of Travolta’s forward.

‘Gotti’ Sets Deal With Vertical Entertainment For June Release

Do not walk out early on this movie.  Get high.  Bring someone to give you a hand job if it gets real bad.  or if it gets real good.  Whatever.  But much like Black Panther was devoutly supported by black peoples worldwide…if mob fans don’t see this thing through, we may not get another mob bio pic for decades.

 

 

The Many Saints of Newark

Hell to the fucking yeah!  Man is this good news and something to look forward to or what!

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/sopranos-movie-prequel-david-chase-1202721680/

The fact I was actually born in that sewer we call Newark makes this even better.  If you are a mob movie/series fan like myself, you have suffered in a drought.  Not a whole lot out there being made that is any good.  I just did a post on the Gotti movie with John Travolta and that is a sad statement in and of itself.

I graduated high school in 1997.  The Sopranos pretty much launched right after and I was there at the beginning.  It is the only thing I have ever watched that I marked on the calendar.  I don’t care if my cousin was having a baby.  If it was on a Sunday night at 9pm eastern…too bad.  Expect me at the hospital around 10:30pm.  Deadwood was close to this for me but never reached the religious commitment for me that The Sopranos had.

I know many of you will wonder how the hell can you have The Sopranos without James Gandolfini.  Well I think you can have something different but just as good.  All evidence points to David Chase being a dark brilliant man and if he is involved, which he seems to be, it should hold up.  You have to remember David Chase brought The Sopranos to HBO when this was an unheard of thing.  There would be no Game of Thrones if not for The Sopranos.  That is a fact.  Chase has vision and balls.

Prequels have mixed results.  Some have notoriously bombed (Dumb & Dumberer).  Others have surprised and even brought in a new audience (Prometheus, XMEN and The Hobbit).  Tell me you don’t want to see a young Paulie Walnuts running around New Jersey in the 60s?  I picture the early Goodfellas scenes with a young Henry Hill and Tommy.  I think something like that could work and even be nostalgic.

I will do my best to keep this blog updated with all I find out as this develops.  I’m gonna be wrapped up on this shit like a federal wire taped to Big Pussy.  Mind fucking these donkeys!

What is going on with John Travolta’s Gotti?

Look…it looks bad.  Real bad.

BUT, until I have seen it officially (if we are ever able to see it officially), I will not put out a final judgement and either should any of us mob movie buffs.  I have seen some terrific trailers that turned out to be lousy movies and vice versa.  Here is the trailer for Travolta’s Gotti:

Yeah, it appears to be closer to toilet paper to me than anything approaching Goodfellas or Donnie Brasco territory.

Gotti: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Mafia Don was a made for HBO version back in 1996 and honestly, it is great.  I just watched it again in January and even my 70-year-old mother liked it and she doesn’t like shit.  It was probably the precursor for how The Sopranos would be filmed with HBO.  Back in the 80s and early 90s, any made for TV or HBO movie would have been dog pile, but here Armand Assante did a great job and a lot of future Sopranos actors were in this one…including Uncle Junior.

The current delayed project actually looks like a spoof or something SNL would make.  I want it to be fair so bad.  It doesn’t even have to be good.  Just don’t be a mockery with over the top Italian acting.  Don’t be some Mad TV caricature of the mob.  Show the original five families of New York the respect they deserve or don’t show it at all!

Fuggedaboutit

America…fuggedaboutit!

(I don’t know who made the above but I want it)

Fam…I think I am ready to go full gangster.  I just need four more families to make the new five families.  Of course I have to sit at the head of the table, but you still get a lot of respect and a sizable territory being in the other four.

I say we start by selling olive oil and then create our own micro brewery with gambling in the back.

 

Don’t buy wigs that come off at the wrong time

The hits just keep on coming.  Bad time to be a Goodfella I say.  RIP to the great Charles Low AKA Morrie of Morrie’s Wig Shop. Just a tremendous character.  The lovable loser.

With my background in sales and my naturally corny persona, I really identified with Morrie.  I would love to make a commercial like the one Morrie made for his wig shop.  Forget about money…priced to fit every budget.  Tested in hurricane winds!  Good looking broads in furs giving him a kiss in hurricane winds with his fantastic wig holding it down!  Morrie knew how to sell.  He just never knew how to stop busting balls all the time.

RIP Frank Vincent

Wow.  I am at a loss here.  Not so much because the legendary Frank Vincent has passed away at 78, but because of the eerie-ness in me launching this blog less than a month ago and titling it NO MORE SHINES BILLY.  Think on that for a second.

Well, I just wanted to tip the cap to Frank Vincent here today.  I found out the man who played Billy Batts died just a few hours ago while I was in the grocery store.  To me, it is like John Wayne dying.  I loved him as Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos and just about everything else he was in.  They don’t make old school Italians like that anymore.

Enjoy some of the best of Phil Leotardo below.  I mean it is the least you can do…he did twenty fucking years in the can!  RIP Frank Vincent.

Is Goodfellas the greatest movie of all time?

Fair question posed here fellas.  This has recently been pondered by a few people I know.  I just finished listening to a dated pod cast by comedian Bill Burr who makes his assertion that it most certainly IS.  He makes some compelling arguments.  Bill lays out a few Easter Eggs in the movie I had never previously thought much on.  For example, the last scene where Tommy, Joe Pesci’s character, shows up firing his gun away at the screen.  I always just thought that was a random bad ass way to end the movie by Scorsese.  Wack the audience.  Bill’s take is that it is actually Tommy coming back from the dead to kill Henry for becoming a rat.  Interesting take there Bill, though your fucking accent makes me want to hit you upside the head with a fucking shine box.  No offense to friends of the greater New England area.  I loved The Departed but Burr just is incessant with it.

I have a bigger question to ponder as we move forward in this universe and specifically liberal crazed America.  Will Goodfellas even be allowed to be viewed in 20 years?  Yeah, that is a real fucking question.  Since we are already close to burning books in this country, I could imagine the race police deeming Goodfellas a white supremacist bible in the year 2037 or sooner.  Lot of the N word tossed around in there.  I am not advocating racism or supporting racist works or whatever.  I just love my gangster flicks and while they tell a tale of la costra nostra, it seems in order to move on from our past, many among us believe we must burn certain aspects of it to the ground.  I don’t see any people stopping this mob mentality as it grows.  However, I am happy to be wrong about that should that day come.  But maybe, just maybe…like prohibition did…there will be a new resurgence of mafia activity.  Men with the balls to commit what was once acceptable but now labeled criminal.  Sheeeeeeet….if it comes to that you may have to open the books up and let me take my blood oath.

I just don’t see myself marching down Washington to change some wheel that just keeps spinning around through the ages.  Must be the Italian blood that still runs cold through my veins.  I see myself turning to the streets.  Peddling Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco Blu Rays or digital files out of the trunk of my Land Rover like it was Carolina Moonshine.  Keeping that good raw gangster shit alive.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that because I am sure I wouldn’t last long before incarceration.

This may be the greatest thing you will watch in your life

 

Yeah.  That right there nailed it.  Riff Raff even looks like Billy Batts.  You got Underdog shining shoes.  Is this from an alternate reality somewhere?

A young blog is like a young crew

We all start out somewhere.  That is no different for this blog.  Right now this blog is just jacking cigarette trucks and getting pinched for small crimes.  But soon…very soon…this will be a full fledge criminal enterprise worthy of wire taps and federal charges.

Just remember…keep your mouth shut and never rat on your friends.

Jimmy The Gent