This Thing of Ours
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Movie Reviews of This Thing of Ours
Movie Review: Quality entry for fan-collectors
Summary: 4 Stars
Fans of The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, The Sopranos, will enjoy this well-scripted, finely acted drama. (Watch for a great performance from the record-keeper guy from Casino!). Here, "this thing" reaches out into space, for speed-of-light business transactions.
A World-Class Computer Hacker teams up with a street guy with the "thing" in his blood and a guy who was born "connected" - the three chums awkwardly but successfully convince the old school to join the new school. Small detail: they need a ton of money from the old school to make it work.
Then...the inevitable.
Story builds slowly but nicely, incorporating Computerese from the new breed with terrific, improvised-sounding dialogue from the older characters. A strong female character and a more powerful denouement might have ensured a Classic, but check this one out! Watch it High-Definition!!
Movie Review: Good movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I think this was a great movie. It may not be the most updated movie, but it was great. There is action, the wayt the mafia works, how thay see things, I think it was just good! I would see it again for sure without a problem, and enjoy it again.
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Movie Review: A Thought Provoking Failure
Summary: 2 Stars
Sadly, for the promise the veteran cast held out to me initially, i.e. Frank Vincent, James Caan et.al---Danny Provenzano's This Thing of Ours is a shamelessly derivative, badly executed endeavor. But it is also unexpectedly thought provoking in the issues it raises.
There are scenes in this film approaching unabashed, abject pilferage from the great mob movies. It's well.... Embarrassing.
The brief inclusion of some gratuitous pseudo data re secure site encryption fails to convince us that the "Let's bring the mob into the 21st century & make a billion" scheme at the heart of this movie could ever work.
This project was hardly the suspension of disbelief challenge of say The Da Vinci Code, after all.
As for dialogue, anyone with half an ear---and apparently, Mr. Provenzano, currently a cast member in one of Bravo's Real Housewives franchises as himself, grew up in this milieu---anyone with half an ear can easily pick up and replicate the indigenous specifics, eccentricities, cadences; they are, by now, infamous.
Actually, anyone who has seen any of the classics via Coppola, Scorsese, the neo Shakespearean master, David Chase....can own all of it in the time it takes to screen one movie.
Next, Mr. Provenzano, alas, has no insight at all re human individuals as individuals, and so, no gift for depicting them as such.
Perhaps even more upsetting, given film is a visual medium: he has no ability or instinct to "get"/differentially conjure/record VISUALS, forget storyboard a given scene. That he may have had a shoestring budget DP is no excuse: think Nick Gomez in his genius work from the early 90s, Laws of Gravity. The polar opposition will provide perspective.
Next, Mr. P. has little grasp of the crucial to nail nuances of editing. The formidable Thelma Schoonmaker always happily affirms she simply augments Mr. Scorsese's fastidious vision, frame by frame (now also pixel by pixel) often after exhaustive exploration and debate they both thrive on in the editing room.
But for me, beyond all of the above disappointments, most embarrassing of all: it appears Mr. Provenzano actually believes that the cliché accoutrements of living large within this ghetto sensibility are what living large really is.
In Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese, with his laser eye for detail, offers us tacky decor, vulgar, sherbet colored Cadillac coupes, white minks & Christmas trees, along with infinite related aberrations his characters are moved to. As with everything else not arbitrary in his movies he is endowed to Bring, he does this to inform and enrich us.
Interesting that the only. brief, organically lyrical footage in this movie is a requisite private jet making a dramatic, , upwardly arching move in flight.
The related cliché inclusion of a Benz convertible in this movie is compounded by that someone chose...candy apple red. Such unwitting relegations are common in all ghetto subcultures, but my take is Mr. Provenzano may actually not get this. Any more than some of the principals in the Real Housewives series in which he currently appears get it.
One wonders if Mr. P. in this effort, was emulating one of David Chase's brilliantly conceived characters in The Sopranos: Christopher...in whom Mr. Chase imbued a blind, rabid, delusional conviction that he could be a filmmaker depicting the milieu he was a part of.
At heart, all of Mr. Chase's characters are desperate, empty souls. In his profound understanding of and empathy for many of them, remarkably, he envies none. Not even secretly. I am not convinced this is true for either Mr. Coppola or Mr. Scorsese, and I cherish both.
Mr. Provenzano's envy, though, is palpable. On the other hand. it is possible he only could have gotten this impressive veteran cast onboard, maybe for fqr less than scale,if not gratis, as some "homage" to what one of his relatives is rumored to have been a party to back in the day
re Jimmy Hoffa.
We can't change the past, but we can earn our way out of its downside legacy over time. But only if we get there may well be a downside.
I caught a comment in one of the reviews here re HBO quality vs theatrical release quality (sigh) and can not let that go unaddressed.
Fact is, HBO, over time, has morphed into a precious venue for true genius in ways studios do only rarely. HBO manifests the differential clarity & gonads to produce properties others never would. David Chase pitched The Sopranos all over the land for years; nobody would go there. HBO got him, got it and went there. The rest, as they say, is history. Not to mention such as the singular Angels in America.
Finally re This Thing of Ours, this is still America, where opportunities, if earned, are sometimes afforded, and trying always deserves credit.
Of course, one always hopes for honest & enlightened efforts in all things.
Real talent can not be learned in a classroom, but many of the greats went to film school. I might suggest that Mr. P. make some REAL bones by following in those footsteps.
On the hopeful side, given the ending of this movie (endgame Michael Corleone alienation/regret/sadness/loneliness), I would like to believe Mr. Provenzano may honestly get some part of the "Be careful what you wish for" phenomenon, especially within this and other truncated subcultures.
But frankly...it would take a lot to convince me.
Movie Review: HBO-grade quality, niche market of organized crime
Summary: 2 Stars
This Thing of Ours (2003), from Danny Provenzano, is a film aimed at
the niche market of organized crime. It has an HBO-grade quality,
meaning a step above a TV movie, yet clearly below theatrical
quality.
What makes this picture interesting is first and foremost, the fact
that it takes viewers for a ride in another time and space, and
makes them forget about themselves, which is an essential quality of
good entertainment.
Secondly, there's the soundtrack composed by Joe Perry, lead
guitarist of Aerosmith, with a cameo appearance by the bassist, Brad
Whitford towards the end of the movie - a plus for fans of that
great rock band.
Although successful overall, with a necessary mix of both ugly and
beautiful numbers (yin and yang), adolescent and mature, classical
and cheap pop songs, there's an ecletic mix of music that at times
has the movie over-indulging in a MTV music video style of
narrative. Also, the varied numbers may irritate a number of
viewers, from the numerous teenager loud-metal and dime a dozen
popsongs.
Third, the acting is certainly credible, and viewers will find
interesting some characters, especially those of Frank Vincent,
Vincent Pastore and James Caan. Unfortunately, a number of other
actors, although excellent in their professionalism and somewhat
innocuous on screen, are totally unknowns in the business, AFAIK.
Fourth, the script introduces the concept of old-school gangsters
forging ahead past the year 2000, with computers, cell phones,
defeating communication links based on coded algoritms of satellites
in orbit through hackers. The dollar amounts of $50 million and $1
to $2 billion in the heist are staggering, and questionable in their
realism. As such, it suggests sophisticated technology as the new
religion, such that even the FBI falls into its trap, as an agent is
caught planting evidence on closed circuit TV at a gangster's
dwelling.
Visually, this is a quasi-wide screen release, that is effective,
the editing very good, the images clear, with good zooms from time
to time, to stoke the excitement of viewers.
The first third of the movie seems to start a bit slowly, with dry
lines of dialog, but gets better as the story unfolds, greatly
assisted by the soundtrack that compensates for excitement, where
often none exists visually.
There are cliches, obviously (or essential elements) characterizing
this specific underworld group ...wine, spaghetti, gardening of
tomatoes, cussing, eating, lasagna as well as the selectin of
wise-guys by their external appearance, showing the techniques of
collecting money from bad debtors, victims thrown into the trunks of
a car, etc.
The downside of this picture, is perhaps the questionable graphic
nature of blood packs exploding during point-blank range rubouts,
which many will find unnecessary and distasteful, or the scenes of
electric shocks, intimidation, etc.
While this work is very professional, perhaps more could have been
done in bringing forward a few extra actors, big names that could
have brought in more charisma, class, realism and gravitas vs. some
actors with the tendency in being lightweights mixed with the 3 or
4 big names.
The outcome of the tale, is that ... even the best underworld
organizations show no gratitude for a few billion in profits brought
in by the 3 new members who masterminded the operation, preferring
to eliminate the risk of future stool pigeons by taking them out.
Movie Review: Okay, so it's a "Sopranos" wannabe, but it has its merits
Summary: 2 Stars
Yes, it's about "good fellas." Yes, it's peopled with alumni from the "Sopranos" (weakly cracking wise). And there are too many requisite bullets-to and through-the-head cinemagraphic moments. The plot is pretty weak - the downloading of money from a satellite requires a great deal of imaginative assent - the development of the story is uneven, and the acting is transparently bad on not just a few occasions. Still, the actor-writer-director, Provenzano, shows flashes and this would have been a very good end-of-college project for a cinema student. (Is that what it was?)
What you have to like about it is what he tries to do, not dislike what he doesn't do. Provenzano occasionally gives us - just now and again - the atmosphere of the NY-NJ crime-world, but these are far, far better than any portrayed in the "Sopranos." The dedication to business, the rock bottom-line mentality, the utterly cold sides that appear inhuman, in short, the "other" side of the human coin are nicely revealed in some very chilling scenes. Uncle ordering the death of his nephew's friends before his eyes; Johnny Irish bashing heads or killing; the torture scene: to paraphrase Tessio in "Godfather I," "nothing personal, just business.") (Of course, it has been alleged that the members of the underworld carted away and sold much metal from the WTC towers in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. "Just business.")
Thus, there is none of that revolting soap opera component that is increasingly dominating the "Sopranos" has become. (Indeed, the "Sopranos" jumped the shark many moons ago.) So try this one on for size. Sure, its production values are poor, some scenes are painful, you keep comparing to other Mafia-movies. But there are some hidden gems for those who look. (Yeah, I agree: Johnny Irish was a good character. The FBI guy, however, was agony to watch.)
Two stars for effort and for promise. Serious cinema students should check out Provenzano's next.