The Ratpack is directed by Rob Cohen and stars Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna, Angus McFadyen, Don Cheadle and William Peterson.The film focuses on Frank Sinatra and his gang of showbiz friends nicknamed The Ratpack. The film focuses on them during the time leading up to President Kennedy's election when they were all at the height of their fame from 1959 through to the early 1960's.The Ratpack stars Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra,Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr and Angus McFadyen as Peter Lawford.It mainly looks at the relationship between the group and their involvement in the presidential campaign of Senator John F.Kennedy(William Peterson).Mantegna, Cheadle and McFadyen give the best performances as Dean, Sammy and Peter they captures their personality perfectly and all bear quite a strong resemblance to the men they are playing .William and Ray are sadly miscast although you believe Ray as Frank more than William as Kennedy. It's a shame that more time wasn't devoted to the groups friendship and the films they made together.What's here though is an entertaining and well made film that is not quite as perfect as it could have been. Well worth a watch though for fans of Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr and Lawford.

THE RAT PACK is an entertaining made for HBO-TV movie chronicling that famous group of entertainers, led by ol' blue eyes, who ruled Hollywood and Las Vegas stages for years and made their presence felt in the political arena as well. Whether or not the facts presented here are accurate, only the actually parties involved can say, but, according to this particular screenplay, Sinatra was a powerful Svengali who controlled and manipulated the lives and careers of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and even wielded quite a bit of influence on our 35th President, JFK and his brother Bobby. Martin is presented as a drunk who allowed Sinatra to lead him around by the nose and Davis is presented as a milquetoast who wouldn't make any move in his career or personal life without Sinatra's approval. Lawford comes off as a doormat who was shoved to the forefront to cover Sinatra's butt in embarrassing situations. Ray Liotta works hard, but fails to convince as Sinatra, but Joe Montegna is superb as Martin, as is Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. Angyus McFadden is convincing as Peter Lawford and comic Bobby Slayton makes the most of the thankless role of Joey Bishop. William Petersen does a charismatic turn as JFK as does Zeljko Ivanek as RFK. Barbara Niven also shines in a brief appearance as Marilyn Monroe. If you're looking for an accurate recounting of the activities of this notorious circle of friends, this is probably not the place to go and if you're looking for a portrait of them as fun loving innocent entertainers, you won't find that either and I can pretty much guarantee that Sinatra fans will not be enamored of the way their idol is portrayed here, but if you're looking for a glance into a group of Hollywood insiders about which a lot is unknown, it might be worth the rental.

This was a great film on a particular era in time. Not only was it a great film on the most famous clique of the late 1950's and early 1960's, it allowed us to see how not only things were at that particular time. It also allowed us to see how the two worlds of politics and entertainment came together to help get Kennedy into office. It also showed how Sinatra really was awed by Kennedy's personality and how that idolization lead him and the rest of the Pack as well as his buddies in the mob to backing. Also, the film paints a rather negative picture of Joe Kennedy who was very much against not only the mob being involved in his son's campaign. Also, the you pretty much see how the elder Kennedy pretty much snubbed Sammy Davis because of the color of his skin. The one negative criticism I have about the film is that they didn't bring up how the Pack first came together and how it was Humphrey Bogart, not Frank Sinatra, that pretty much was responsible for it. Other than that, this was a really great film.

I've given a lot of thought to this movie and, in all honesty, I can't think of anything in particular to critique about it. Revolving around the relationship between the famous "Rat Pack" of the 1960's (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) and focusing heavily on their relationship with the Kennedy's, this is a very entertaining, well-done film that provided a peek at the lives of the 1960's Hollywood jet-set. In addition to the Rat Pack and the Kennedy's we get glimpses of Marilyn Monroe (Barbara Niven) and Joe DiMaggio (John Diehl,) and a look at the involvement of organized crime.The performances are strong. Ray Liotta was a standout as Sinatra, but no less compelling were Joe Mantegna as Martin and Angus MacFadyen as Lawford. Bobby Slayton as Joey Bishop was less central to the story, but pulled off the character well. Only Don Cheadle (as Davis) seemed to not quite grasp his character, but he still managed a good performance. The intricacies of the relationship between the five (particularly between Sinatra and Lawford) are detailed and everything seems very natural. Is this really the way it was? I don't know. Only these five would know for sure, but the movie seemed plausible and was an entertaining evening - another success for HBO in my opinion.10/10. Really. I found it fascinating stuff.