Tag Archives: review

Horror Film Review: The Ape Man (dir by William Beaudine)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this 1943 film, a mysterious man suggests to reporter Jeff Carter (Wallace Ford) that he should go out to the mansion of Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi) and look into the recent disappearance of the doctor.  Dr. Brewster’s sister (Minerva Urecal) is a well-known ghost hunter and Carter’s editors likes the idea of Carter and photographer Billie Mason (Louise Currie) heading out to the mansion and getting a picture of a ghost.

Carter is upset because he’s having work with a — gasp! — woman.  Bliie is not impressed by the fact that Carter is still in America while all the other men his age are fighting overseas.  Carter explains that he’ll be enlisting in the Navy in a week.  Billie realizes that Carter is not an unpatriotic coward and we, the viewers, are reminded that this film was made during World War II.  I like the fact that America was so unified during World War II that even fictional characters were expected to explain what they were doing for war effort.

For the record, Dr. Brewster’s mansion is not haunted by ghosts.  Instead, the problem is that Dr. Brewster’s experiments have turned him into a man-ape hybrid.  He has a beard, he walks like a monkey, and he fears that he’s turning more into an ape everyday.  He spends almost all of his time locked up in a cage with a gorilla.  Dr. Brewster has (somehow) discovered that the only way to reverse the process is to get regular injections of spinal fluid.  However, it’s impossible to extract the spinal fluid without also killing the donor.  Dr. Brewster’s colleague, Dr. Randall (Henry Hall), refuses to be a party to murder but he still wants to help Brewster.  Unfortunately, Brewster is beyond saving and he’s also losing his mind as he finds himself slowly becoming more and more of an ape.

The Ape Man was directed by William Beaudine, a filmmaker who directed 179 movies over the course of his long career.  Beaudine worked in all genres, starting off as a major director during the silent era before then becoming a prolific B-movie maker during the sound era.  As a B-movie director, Beaudine was famous for rarely doing second take.  If someone flubbed a line or a piece of scenery nearly fell over, that was too bad.  Of course, it should be noted that Beaudine was working for various Poverty Row production companies and he probably didn’t have the budget to do multiple takes.  His job was to get the film shot quickly and for as little money as possible.

That certainly seems to be the philosophy between The Ape Man, which is only a little over an hour long and which features all of the usual plot holes and continuity eras that one might expect to find in a film that was tossed together in just a few days.  That said, The Ape Man is kind of a fun movie.  Bela Lugosi does his best, even when he’s wearing a totally ludicrous beard.  Wallace Ford and Louise Currie deliver their lines in the rat-a-tat fashion that seemed to be popular with journalists in the films of the 30s and 40s.  The plot’s cheeful lack of coherence actually becomes rather charming and the story ends with a nice moment of 4th wall breaking, as the film itself is saying, “Hey, we had fun, didn’t we?”

Horror Film Review: The Return of the Vampire (dir by Lew Landers)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1943’s The Return of the Vampire opens in 1918.

Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort) and her colleague, Dr. Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery), suspect that there might be a vampire active in London.  After reading a book on vampirism that was written by Dr. Armand Tesla, they manage to find the vampire’s coffin.  As the vampire’s servant — a werewolf named Andreas (Matt Willis) — watches, Lady Jane and Dr. Saunders drove a metal stake through the vampire’s heart.  It turns out that the vampire was none other than Armand Tesla himself!  Andreas turns back into a normal person and becomes Lady Jane’s assistant.

Jump forward to the 1940s.  During an attack by the Germans, a bomb explodes over Tesla’s grave and exposes not just his coffin but also the metal pole in the middle of his skeleton.  Two workmen assume that the pole is just bomb debris and they remove it.  Tesla (Bela Lugosi) promptly comes back to life and Andreas turn back into a werewolf.  Tesla sets out to get revenge on Lady Jane and the daughter of Dr. Saunders, Nicki (Nina Foch).

The Return of the Vampire is an interesting film.  Since the film was not made by Universal Pictures, it could not use the name “Dracula” for its vampire but it’s obvious from the start that Armand Tesla is meant to be Dracula.  Tesla wears his Dracula costume, speaks in his Dracula voice, and gives his Dracula performance.  To his credit, Lugosi actually gives a very strong performance in The Return of the Vampire.  His anger towards the people who staked him feels very real and there’s nothing of the intentional campiness that marred some of Lugosi’s later performances.  Lugosi leaves little doubt that Tesla is not only evil but he’s someone who truly enjoys being evil.  He can’t leave England until he gets his revenge on the people who previously defeated him.  For all the talk of stakes, sunlight, and crosses, the vampire’s true weakness is its own vanity and its inability to let go of a grudge.

As a history nerd, I found myself fascinated with how the film worked the then-current Blitz into its story.  The main villain may have been played by Bela Lugosi but the Germans definitely played their role as well, launching the bombing raids that distracted the authorities from the vampire in their midst.  Indeed, it’s probably not coincidence that it was a German pilot who brought Tesla back to life in the first place.  The German pilot is shot down but not before he drops a bomb on Tesla’s crypt.  The film says to be aware of the outside threat but to also be aware that threats can come from the inside as well.  While the Germany terrify the citizens of London, the vampire coolly moves through the night.

Clocking in at a fast-paced 69 minutes, The Return of the Vampire also features a stiff upper lip Scotland Yard inspector (Miles Mander) who, of course, is skeptical of the existence of vampires.  At the end of the film, he asks his subordinates if they believe in vampires.  They reply that they do.  He then looks at the camera and asks us, “And do you, people?”

Well, do you?

Bonus Horror On The Lens: The Devil Bat (dir by Jean Yarborough)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Because today would have been Bela Lugosi’s birthday, it seems appropriate to showcase him in a bonus horror on the lens!

In the 1940 film, The Devil Bat, the owners of a company in the small town of Heathville are super-excited because they’re going to be given their head chemist, Dr. Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi), a bonus check of $5,000.  However, since Carruthers’s inventions have made millions for the company, he is offended by the small check and decides that the best way to handle this would be to sue in court and demand fair compensation …. just kidding!  Instead, Dr. Carruthers sends his army of giant bats to kill the families of his employers.

The Devil Bat was produced by Production Releasing Corporation, a poverty row studio that specialized in shooting quickly and cheaply.  Going from Universal to PRC was technically a step down for Lugosi but The Devil Bat is actually an excellent showcase for Lugosi and he gives one of his better non-Dracula performances as the embittered Dr. Carruthers.  Indeed, one can imagine that Lugosi, who played such a big role in putting Universal on the map, could relate to Carruthers and his bitterness over not being fairly rewarded for the work he did to make others wealthy.

Enjoy The Devil Bat, starring the great Bela Lugosi!

October Positivity: Redeemed (dir by David A.R. White)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2014’s Redeemed, Ted McGinley plays Paul Tyson.

Paul is married to Beth (Teri Copley) and is a respected businessman who is in charge of a cybersecurity firm.  His latest project is Jericho which, if successful, could revolutionize the way that information is protected online.  A Brazilian firm is interested in buying Paul’s company, which could make Paul a very wealthy man.

However, Paul has some secrets.  Work on Jericho has not gone as smoothly as one might hope and Paul suspects that it might be due to corporate espionage.  Paul is several thousand dollars in debt and the bank has been sending him threatening letters.  When Paul’s friend David (David A.R. White, who also directed) splits with his wife, Paul starts to wonder whether any marriage can survive the modern age.  How do you keep a marriage strong in an increasingly complicated world?  Paul and Beth are supposed to be renewing the vows in the near-future but Paul is preoccupied with both his job and what appears to be a massive mid-life crisis.

Temptation arrives in the form of Julia (Ana Ayora), a beautiful woman who has been sent from Brazil to check out the company.  Paul finds himself attracted to Julia and they bond over many a night of corporate intrigue.  Paul finds himself growing distant from Beth.  Is Paul going to cheat and destroy his marriage?

(Actually, David explains that Paul is already cheating just by spending time with a woman other than this wife.  David also explains that he’s not the one who cheated in his marriage.  Instead, his wife met some guy in an Internet chatroom and she’s been talking to him nonstop.  They haven’t even met but it’s enough for David to move out of his house and into a hotel.  So, remember — if you’re married and you have any close friends of the opposite sex, you’re just a cheatin’ whore.  Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.)

Will Paul remain faithful to Beth?  And will he ever discover who is trying to sabotage Jericho?

On the positive side, Redeemed features Ted McGinley in a dramatic lead role and McGinley does a pretty good job with it.  There are a few times when Paul is simply too naive to be believable but that’s due to the script and not due to McGinley’s performance.  McGinley does the best he can with the material that he’s been given to work with.  I will also point out that the stock footage of Brazil was lovely.  Finally, David A.R. White is a pleasant-enough actor and his direction here gives the entire film a comfortable Lifetime sort of fell.

On the negative side …. ugh, that plot.  The corporate espionage stuff was hokey and Paul’s indecision about whether or not to commit adultery made his character seem more than a little flakey.  Paul’s married to a very tolerant and understanding woman and he has a beautiful family.  The fact that Paul was so easily tempted to throw all that away makes it difficult to have much sympathy for his character and it also makes his eventual “redemption” a bit difficult to buy.  I think most genuinely good husbands would be able to decide not to cheat on their wives without having to fly off to Brazil to think about it.  In the end, the film is very forgiving of Paul but it doesn’t convince the audience to feel the same way.

Redeemed is a film that celebrates marriage and leaves one appreciating divorce.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, Emma tries to destroy someone’s life.

Episode 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”

(Dir by Paul Fox, originally aired on May 20th, 2002)

This episode features Spinner at his best and Emma at her worst.

Let’s get Emma out of the way first.  When Emma happens to see Liberty and Coach Armstrong alone in a classroom together, she assumes that Armstrong is hitting on Liberty.  She tells Manny about her suspicions.  Terri overhears and tells Sean.  Sean tells Spinner.  Spinner tells Jimmy.  Jimmy tells Paige.  Paige tells Hazel (Andrea Lewis).  Hazel tells Ashley.  Ashley tells Liberty.  Liberty gets upset.  When Emma sees Liberty crying, Emma ask Liberty about her and Armstrong.  Liberty swears on her life that Armstrong was not hitting on her.  Emma wonders how the rumor got started–

Uhmm, Emma …. YOU STARTED IT!

Emma promises Liberty that she will work her backwards to find the person who started the rumor–

IT WAS YOU, EMMA!  YOU STARTED THE RUMOR!

Because Emma is apparently incapable of remember what she said earlier in the day, she goes from Ashley to Hazel to Page to Spinner (she skips Jimmy) to Sean and eventually she confronts Terri.  Emma says that the rumor is all over the school and it’s all Terri’s fault.

Terri, quite sensibly, points out that Emma is the one who started the rumor.

Now, in her defense, Emma does feel bad about starting the rumor.  When Mr. Raditch calls Coach Armstrong out into the hall to tell him about the rumors, Emma walks up and confesses that it’s her fault.  But one thing Emma doesn’t do is really apologize.  In fact, when she later talks to Liberty, she instead acts as if it is somehow Liberty’s fault for not telling Emma why she was in a classroom alone with Armstrong in the first place.  Liberty finally admits that she had dyscalculia (which is dyslexia but with numbers) and that Armstrong — THE MATH TEACHER — has been tutoring her and helping her not to feel bad about it.  Emma again asks why Liberty just didn’t tell her that to begin with.

Hey, Emma — maybe Liberty didn’t tell you because IT’S NONE OF YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS!

The episode ends with Liberty telling Emma that, when it comes to helping people, Emma sucks.  And Liberty certainly has a point.

Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Spinner discovers a bug in his food.  “Boycott the caf!” he yells, “it has earwigs!”  Unfortunately, no one believes Spinner.  So, the next day, Spinner collects a bunch of bugs and takes them into the cafeteria.  He thinks that if someone else sees a bug and reports it, they will be believed and someone will call an exterminator.  Of course, the only thing that anyone sees is Spiner carrying a tub of bugs.  The bugs get free and Spinner is sentenced to work in the cafeteria until he’s paid off the $300 that it’s going to cost the school to have the cafeteria exterminated.

“But it needed to be exterminated anyways!” Spinner says.

This was classic Spinner.  Even when he cares about Degrassi, no one listens.  It’s a little bit gross that he was carrying around a tub of living bugs but his heart was in the right place.

Spinner’s the best!

Horror On TV: The Great Bear Scare (dir by Hal Mason)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I came across this old cartoon on YouTube.  Apparently, it aired in October of 1983.

It’s about bears living in Bearbank.  Halloween is approaching and they’re worried about getting invaded by the monsters who live on Monster Mountain.  Well, that makes sense.  My question is why would you buy a house near a location called Monster Mountain?  And really, shouldn’t the monsters be in the houses and the bears in the mountains?  This cartoon is weird.

Anyway, the bears are getting ready to feel the city but little Ted E. Bear sets out to confront his fears!  Woo hoo!

I don’t know.  It’s from 1983.  That was a strange year, I guess.

Enjoy!

Brad reviews SESSION 9 (2001), starring David Caruso and Peter Mullan!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) the owner of a company that removes asbestos from old buildings, makes a bid for the work at the Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts. In a desperate need for cash in his personal life, Gordon promises that his crew can complete the job in only one week, even though a job like this should normally take at least three weeks. His crew… Phil (David Caruso) is Gordon’s right hand man who tries to keep everyone else in line. This isn’t very easy these days considering that another member of the team is Hank (Josh Lucas), who’s currently “dating” (not the word Hank uses) Phil’s ex-girlfriend. The crew is rounded out by Mike (co-writer Stephen Gevedon), a law school dropout who seems to be way too smart to be doing this kind of work, and Jeff (Brendan Sexton III), Gordon’s nephew. As you might expect, once they begin the job, strange things start happening as the crew members find various items in the gigantic mental institution that once housed up to 2,400 people. Mike finds a box of tapes of nine therapy sessions detailing the case of Mary Hobbes, a patient with many personalities who may have murdered someone decades before. Meanwhile, Hank finds a stash of coins and other valuable items in one of the walls. A gambling addict, Hank goes back late that night when no one is around to collect his discovery. Things don’t go well and Hank doesn’t show up for work the next day. We’re led to believe that Hank has headed off to Florida for “casino school,” and this is where things start really getting weird as the pressure of the job and the strange events seem to be getting to the entire crew. When Jeff spots a very oddly acting Hank in the building a couple of days later, the sinister events at the Danvers State Hospital begin to completely unravel! 

Director Brad Anderson’s SESSION 9 is a creepy, slow burn that’s best described as a psychological horror film. It’s one of those movies where you can’t trust what you’re seeing on screen because the story is about the disturbed and damaged human mind. In my opinion, this is the most haunting kind of horror film because there are so many examples in the real world of mentally disturbed people committing horrific acts of violence. My wife has spent the last decade of her nursing career in the area of forensic psychology where she takes care of mentally ill individuals who have committed these types of horrible atrocities, often against the very people in their lives who take care of them. This is real world stuff. And the film’s setting, the actual Danvers State Hospital, also known as the Danvers Lunatic Asylum, in Danvers, Massachusetts, which operated from 1878 to 1992, adds a lot to the atmospheric feel of dread in the film. The Neo Gothic architecture of the facility, and the labyrinth of tunnels connecting the various buildings are a perfect setting for the creepy elements of Anderson’s story, and he takes full advantage of the location. The story and the setting set the stage for what feels like true terror, and I have to admit that SESSION 9 has stayed with me after my initial viewing. 

The cast of SESSION 9 is very effective. Though David Caruso receives top billing, the story really revolves around Gordon Fleming, portrayed by Peter Mullan. I primarily recognized Mullan from his interesting role as Jacob Snell in the excellent Netflix series OZARK, but he’s had quite a career as both an actor (TRAINSPOTTING, THE VANISHING) and director (THE MAGDALENE SISTERS). His quiet, internal performance is a solid anchor for the strange things going on around his crew. Caruso’s character is experiencing his own share of problems in his personal life, and the actor’s edgy intensity is a nice counterbalance to Mullan’s stillness. His life seems to be getting a little out of control and that dynamic works well for the moody paranoia of the film. Of the remaining performances, Josh Lucas seems to fair the best. His character isn’t really all that likable, but he does bring some humor to the role, and it’s ultimately the revelation of his character’s fate that begins to bring the story’s horrifying events to light. 

As I mentioned earlier, SESSION 9 is a slow burn of a film. Brad Anderson takes his sweet time setting the story up by introducing us to the dynamic of the main characters and placing them in the spectacular environment of the institution’s decaying buildings. It takes a bit for the doom and gloom to really start kicking in, so it’s possible that impatient or distracted viewers could lose interest as not much seems to be happening. I also wasn’t very surprised when the revelations of the story finally came to light. If you’re paying attention, the end moments of the movie aren’t as big of a “gotcha” as they could have been. But that’s all okay, because the brilliance of SESSION 9 is ultimately the mood it creates and the impending sense of dread we feel for the final discovery of what some of our characters may be capable of. In those aspects, SESSION 9 is a resounding success. 

Retro Television Review: Law and Order 6.13 “Charm City” and Homicide 4.11 “For God And Country”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Homicide crosses over with Law & Order.

Law & Order 6.13 “Charm City”

(Dir by Ed Sherin, originally aired on February 7th, 1996)

Homicide 4.11 “For God and Country”

(Dir by Ed Sherin, originally aired on February 9th, 1996)

This week, we have a two-part cross-over between Law & Order and Homicide.

On Law & Order, things start in New York City.  A chemical attack on a subway train leaves 20 people dead.  Because the train was specifically heading into Harlem and all of the victims were black, it is suspected that the attack was racially motivated.  In Baltimore, Frank Pembleton and Tim Bayliss hear about the attack and are reminded of a similar attack on a black church, which occurred five years prior.  Pembleton was the primary on the church attack.  He and Bayliss head to New York City, where they meet and quickly get on the nerves of Detectives Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt).

Pembleton’s investigation uncovers that a man from Baltimore, Brian Egan (Kevin Geer), not only had access to the chemicals used in both attacks but also that’s he currently in New York.  When Briscoe and Curtis arrest Egan and fail to get him to confess, Pembleton asks for permission to interrogate him.  Pembleton, being Pembleton, rather easily gets Egan to confess to having committed the church bombing.  However, before getting the confession, Pembleton pretends not to hear Egan say that he no longer wants to continue talking.  In typical Law & Order (if not Homicide) fashion, the confession is tossed out.

Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) still get their conviction.  (And Claire gets an admirer in the form of Tim Bayliss.)  However, it’s obvious that Egan was not working alone.  Egan says that he will never name names.

That changes when his wife is murdered and his teenage son goes missing.  Homicide opens with Bayliss investigating the poisoning of Egan’s wife.  He and Pembleton eventually track down Egan’s son and they get him to admit that he saw his uncle, former NSA agent Col. Alexander Rausch (J.K. Simmons), murder his mother.  Because Brian Egan has said that he’ll only reveal the truth of the conspiracy if his son is brought to New York, Briscoe and Curtis show up in Baltimore.

While Curtis, Bayliss, and Pembleton track down Colonel Rausch, Briscoe hangs out with Munch.  Their friendly banter goes south as soon as Briscoe mentions that he once knew a Gwen Munch in New York.  Gwen is John Munch’s ex-wife and John is not happy when he finds out that Briscoe slept with Gwen.  John Munch spends the rest of the episode drinking heavily.  Stanley Bolander would not approve.

As for Col. Rausch, he is captured and he turns out to be a smug snake.  (He’s played by J.K. Simmons, after all.)  Pembleton wants to see Rausch prosecuted for the church bombing and he especially wants to see racist Rausch publicly humiliated.  New York, however, wants to prosecute him for the subway attack.  Claire comes down to Baltimore and gets a judge to agree that Rausch should first be sent to New York.

Rausch doesn’t care.  He has a heart condition so he simply stops taking his heart pills and then drops dead while waiting for the train to take him to the Big Apple.  The episodes ends with Pembleton sobbing as he realizes Rausch will never be humiliated at a trial.  The New York cops shrug and say, “Sorry, Frank.”

I enjoyed this crossover quite a bit.  It was interesting to see two police dramas, each with a very different style, come together to tell one big story.  As Homicide always celebrated the lengths that Pembleton would go to get a confession in the Box, it was amusing to see what would actually happen to one of those confessions if it was brought to court.  Jack McCoy is not at all amused by Pembleton’s tactics.  Meanwhile, Briscoe, Curtis, and Claire was allowed to loosen up a bit when they went to Homicide and I enjoyed watching them shed their “just-the-facts” personas.  If the Law & Order episode was ultimately superior to the the Homicide episode, that’s just because the Law & Order episode featured an actual mystery to be solved whereas the Homicide episode occasionally felt as if it was padded out a bit.  On Homicide, it was obvious that Colonel Rausch was guilty and, from the minute he started to cough during the interrogation, it was easy to guess what his ultimate fate would be.

(I also have to say that it was interesting to compare this episode of Law & Order to watch Law & Order has become today.  How this show went from featuring McCoy confidently doing his job to Nolan Price essentially begging his co-counsel, on a weekly basis, to actually do her job is something that is worth considering.)

Overall, this was a good crossover.  For those who want to watch it, the Law & Order episode is available on Hulu and Disney+ while Homicide can be found on Peacock and Tubi.

October True Crime: Getting Gotti (dir by Roger Young)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this 1994 made-in-Canada movie, Anthony Denison plays John Gotti.  We watch as he goes from being a street boss to Paul Castellano to assassinating Castellano so that he can take over the Gambino crime family.  Gotti thinks that he’s the king of New York and he’s convinced that no one will ever bring him down.  U.S. Attorney Diana Giacalone (Lorraine Bracco) is determined to prove him wrong.  She becomes the first of many prosecutors to try to get Gotti and Gotti reacts by having his attorney launch a series of outrageously misogynistic attacks against her.  Gotti doesn’t just want to defeat Diana.  He also wants to humiliate her.  Diane may have the evidence but Gotti’s got the money.  Who will get Gotti?

Now, I guess I could argue here that the horror aspect of this film comes from the crimes that Gotti commits.  And it is true that we see Gotti kill a number of people.  He’s a sadistic killer, the type who will shoot someone twenty more times than he needs to.  As the last of the truly flamboyant gangsters, Gotti would go on to become something of a pop cultural institution.  But one should not overlook the fact that, for all of his charisma and bravado, John Gotti was not a nice guy.  Of course, I should also point out that none of that charisma is really present in Anthony Denison’s performance as Gotti.  As played by Denison, John Gotti — the so-called Teflon Don whose greatest strength was his shamelessness — comes across as being a little boring.

Actually, the scariest thing about this film is Lorraine Bracco’s performance as Diana Giacalone.  Bracco does a lot of yelling as Giacalone.  Sometimes, it’s understandable.  Giacalone is portrayed as being someone who grew up on the same tough streets as Gotti and who resents people like Gotti and the Mafia giving a bad name to Italians in general.  The problem is that Bracco yells her lines even when there’s no reason to be yelling.  At one point, she discovers that someone screwed up her lunch order and she screams about it as if the world is ending.  Visiting her mother (Ellen Burstyn) for the holidays, Giacalone yells at her family.  When the verdict comes in, Giacalone yells some more.  The yelling is pretty much nonstop and, as a result, one starts to feel that the other U.S. attorneys might have a point when they say that Giacalone is a loose cannon.  The film tries to present her as being a strong, no-bullshit woman who is going up against an army of misogynists but there’s more to being strong than just yelling.  It would be such a big deal if the film had given her a personality beyond yelling but it doesn’t.  I blame the script more than I blame Lorraine Bracco, who can be a very good actress when cast in the right role.

Getting Gotti pretty much hits every Mafia cliche.  Whenever anyone drives around the old neighborhood, Italian string music plays.  There’s a moment where Giacalone yells that her goal is to make sure that people understand that the Mafia isn’t “Al Pacino looking soulful” in The Godfather.  I had to wonder if Giacalone had ever actually watched The Godfather.  Seriously, an Italian attacking The Godfather?  Who does she think she is, Joe Columbo?

Gotti remains the Gotti film to watch.