Another mob movie based in new york..very few have succeeded at it. This one bites more than it can chew, and gets choked in the middle and dies. The narration starts like it is the history of the gangs of NY-with the civil war,and ends in the 90s..and thats where the story begins. Seriously??!What are we supposed to expect...?! Never has a movie aspired to be so much and delivered so little. The movie is lost from the start - its got too many characters, too many settings,everybody has an angle on everything...it all adds up to nothing in the end. Five guys were hustlers from when they were 10, but now do not have access to a handgun?! Therefore Dennis got to steal a canoe to pay for one? As I said, it doesn't add up. The side stories make no sense - Frankie's sister(the elongated wedding was unncessary),then Helen who does a about face in a cab,the union scenes(where was that going?!),the hundreds of thousands of bars that they hang out in(I know they all gotta be cool like that)...feels like this movie wants to tell the entire new york irish mob story in less two hours - and it fails. Nothing happens until a predictable end(howz that for a story line?). Save your time, and watch one of the Godfather movies for the 456th time and you have your time spent meaningfully

The Irish in Hell's Kitchen, New York, maybe but rather in Satan's brine of a brain. Five kids swear to be friends forever but they want to get the moon without working their backside too hard. So they do small mediocre little deals under the complacent and tolerant eyes of the local Irish gang-leader and the local Irish police inspector. What happens is the natural consequence of that mediocrity. One of the five will one day dream big and go to the gang-leader who will see him as a competitor, so the gang-leader will trick him into a complete funky flunk and one will be killed by another, and a third one will commit suicide and a fourth one will have to have a bloody fight with the gang-leader under the protective eye of the cop for the cop finally to clean up the place in the most ineffective way possible: by terminating the gangster with a good old police bullet. And the other tricked one will finally pass justice over himself and jump from the roof. One will survive happily married and the other one will escape with the sister of the first one who got killed. More melodramatic you die. Sickening by excess. This vision of Irish crime or Irish police work or even Irish love does not compare with the nearly mundane bel canto of the mafia, or the rustic gory pitiless vociferations of the Russian or the Georgian mafias, or even the sly treacherous vicious praying mills of those who lock themselves in some kind of exclusive religion, no matter which, Christians Born Again or Islamic Fundamentalism or yoga transcendentalism. The film in other words sounds pretty critical of the Irish, if not plainly racist towards them: they are not even able to be good gangsters exploiting their brothers and sisters.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

I am very disappointed that a lot of people are bashing this film. I thought it was great. I mean, sure the picture quality wasn't in its prime but it gives it character. I very much enjoyed the directors choice of narration and overall order of the story. For those who think its too long, i have to say, calm down. Appreciate the movie for what it is, its not going to change. The reason this movie seems slow and drawn out is because most movies have so much crammed into 90 minutes which creates a loss of patience for other movies. I generally enjoy any movie that Chazz Palminteri is involved with, and this is no exception. I thought Jim Breuer was a nice touch, and i was impressed with William Baldwin. I gladly recommend this movie to all. Don't just take my word for it, watch it. Who knows maybe you'll like it.

good story, great cast, good acting---a low budget sleeper---Baldwin good, Assante great as ever and Leo Rossi in a good supporting role---some of the best parts played by relative unknowns---and Jason Gedrick as a junkie???---who would have thought---but it works---made in 2001,sat on the shelf too long---just as good as Sean Penn's movie about the Westies---a poor man's "mean streets"--Chaz Palmentierri is great as the neighborhood cop, --- i think that they could have beefed up his part a little more, but his performance is solid as ever--a new york guy for a new york role---i think that the exteriors were shot right in hell's kitchen---good ending ties up the story--well done