I was delighted with the casting choices here, but in all honesty, they just don't work. Dreyfus and Reynolds are bumping heads, dramatically speaking. The gags don't work. You have four greats (Dan Hedaya, Seymour Cassel, Richard Dreyfus, and Burt Reynolds), who are all funny and they are all straight/serious, but at all the wrong times, which throw the timing off so badly that you don't get a single good laugh out of it.It tries to feel like the camaraderie experienced in Cocoon, but it comes off more like an extended version of Johnny Skidmarks, and not in a good way! Not that there could BE a good way, I hated that movie! Honestly, it's okay for a light chuckle, but if you're looking for substance of ANY kind, you won't find it here.It rates a 5.5/10 from...the Fiend :.

THE CREW (2000) * Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Seymour Cassel, Dan Hedaya, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jennifer Tilly, Jeremy Piven, Lainie Kazan, Miguel Sandoval. (Dir: Michael Dinner) There's been a spate of gangster related comedies in the past few years thanks largely to the success of HBO's blockbuster series `The Sopranos' and the Billy Crystal/Robert De Niro comedy `Analyze This'. Which can only explain why the latest in the subgenre - thugcomedy - has squeaked by and falls short of its predecessors as if stumbling in cement shoes.A foursome of retired gangsters contemplate their golden years in sunny Florida while wondering where they went wrong in the long run sets the premise for this woefully unfunny comedy that fails to elicit a smile let alone a laugh.Bobby Bartellemeo (Dreyfuss slumming big time) is the ring-leader of the Grumpy Old Gangsters who pines for his long-lost daughter; Bats Pistella (Reynolds fading on his comeback from the vapors of `Boogie Nights') would rather die in a blaze of glory when he's not too busy getting ideas after being clunked on the head; The Brick Donatelli (the usual estimable Hedaya) works part-time in a morgue painting up the stiffs to look like clowns and The Mouth Donato (Cassell) is the ladies' man with a gift of gab (unbeknownst to his colleagues who think he's practically a mute). The friends become embroiled in a scheme to save their retirement lodgings in a decrepit hotel by `killing' a corpse (with the aid of The Brick's workplace) to put the fear into the housing development community which only sets the police to investigate.Enter Detective Olivia Neal (the foxy Moss late of `The Matrix') and her estranged boyfriend/partner Detective Steve Menteer (Piven, completely wasted of his comic talent here) to check out the geezers' residence and escalate their workload when the guys are offered a hit job by The Mouth's stripper girlfriend Ferris (bodacious cartoon Tilly getting her ya-yas out) to whack her stepmother, the obnoxious deli franchise owner Pepper Lowenstein (Kazan who is pushing maximum density to her zaftig voluptuousness). Their attempt to do the job results in only pissing off the local drug czar, Raul Ventana (Sandoval), who seeks revenge when the corpse they've `offed' turns out to be his Alzheimer's ridden father. Are you laughing yet? Not only does the film creak and groan and diminish the talents of the entire cast but reduces Piven to a toe-sucker, Moss to an unbelievable plot point of unbelieveablilty (she's Dreyfuss' missing daughter!) and to see Reynolds in some painful slapstick not seen since his `Cannonball Run' heydey is just plain sad. Nor did I even believe any of the crew being actual mob guys. They were not menacing, street-smart or credible. Much could be said of the lame production itself. I did not for once find any of this amusing and couldn't wait to get out of the theatre. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I figured I'd rent this movie since you all know I'm a big Burt Reynolds fan. Well it was somewhat of a dissapointment but at the same time, it did have its funny moments. Burt was always funny, this one he was okay but it wasn't as good. It was pretty funny when he worked at Burger King. The actors did a good job, it's just that it wasn't the most entertaining flick. 6/10

Ugh. What a disappointment. A great line-up: Dannie Hedaya, Big Burt Reynolds, Seymour Cassel, Richard Dreyfuss and even Lainie Kazan; an excellent premise for hilarity: a bunch of retired wise-guys...and no story. It just falls apart like one of those cartoon characters that's been hit in the head with a falling anvil: first, the head, then an arm, then..., well, you know. Dang! it's too stinking bad as I wanted, really wanted to see some funny business out of this array of talent-- but, even the best acting "Crew" can't pull it off with no story. The first reviewer here remarked on the retiree stereotypes and the gags wear thin, thin after the first run through. The plot (?) doesn't hold and it goes down, down. Bummer. I don't like to dis a film, especially with a "Crew" of guys that I've enjoyed in other films, but this one is a stinker and we will just have to let it go. Bummer again. I was up for some good comedy.