Chicago Overcoat (2009)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

One of my all time favorites.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Many actors known for their work in Mafia films become tight-cast as gangsters, meaning that audiences are so familiar with them as a gangster, that they can't see them as anything else. That's fine when they're younger, but once these guys are in their 70s, it becomes a lot harder to find work. Some turn to comedy, while other try, unconvincingly, to remain gangsters, this is one of those stories. Lou Marazano (Frank Vincent) is one of the last OG's in his Chicago crew. While he still sees himself as a gangster, the next generation sees him as a dinosaur. One night Marazano becomes aware of how the others see him, and decides to take on one last big job in order to prove himself. Frank Vincent was terrific in the Sopranos, because he was an old school boss. In this film, he's an old school hit-man, running around town, trying to intimidate people with a Tommy-Gun. The whole thing, wasn't believable or funny, it was just sad, watching this old man running around like it's still 1940. The rest of the cast was no prize either, made up of guys who had three lines in a Sopranos episode 15 years ago. Chicago Overcoat proves that it takes a lot more than just gun fire and some f-bombs to make a decent film about the Mafia. There is no honor in this final act of violence and there isn't even a compelling reason for it. The whole theme of this film is an old man trying to prove something that he no longer has. I feel badly that a legend like Frank Vincent is forced to take on roles like this and I just found the whole thing to be sad and in poor taste.

If you can relate to the great American author Arthur Miller who wrote the stage and theater play Death of a Salesman than you know the tragic life that Willy Loman the main character in Death of a salesman had. Frank Vincent plays Lou Marazano an aging mobster muscle who never makes captain of his crew. Now Lou's legacy is his daughter and his young grandson. Lou realizes that he has not always been the best father to his daughter during his lifetime of criminal activities. He wants to make things right in his waning years.Lou's son-in-law is a low life criminal who would rather snort cocaine and hang out at the local strip club than spend any quality time with his wife and son. Lou takes it upon himself to just talk to his step son but this low life has little respect for an aging mobster who could never make captain in his crew. Lou needs to set this scumbag straight not on who he is as a man, but that his grandson needs his father and if his son-in-law does not want to fulfill his parental obligations Lou has an alternative plan.To make some extra money Lou agrees to take on the contract hits of three local stool pigeons who are going to proceed to court against a mob boss. Lou's signature for completing a contract hit was to always send the widow a bunch of flowers minus the sympathy card. There is an old detective named Ralph Maloney played very well by character actor Danny Goldring who remembers this old mobster's signature calling card but he has to prove that Lou Marazano has come out of retirement after almost 30 years of staying silent with his gun.So the chase is on and the story line I felt was not only appealing but intriguing and kept the audience guessing how this modern day Willy Loman copycat would end up. Actor Mike Starr plays mob boss Lorenzo Galante who is taking his instructions from the big boss Stefano D'Agnostino played by Armand Assante who orders the hit on the three witnesses that aging Lou Marazano pleads to take on as he really needs the money. We learn later that the assassination money is to be used for only good purposes which I don't want to spoil for anyone who has yet to see this good mobster film.Lou also has a love interest in the attractive Lorraine Lionello played by the versatile actress Kathrine Narducci. I just loved her role in the Chazz Palminteri 1993 crime film "A Bronx Tale". She played the mother of a young boy named Calogero who was torn between his love for his bus driver dad played by Robert DeNiro and the local mob boss Chazz Palminteri. In my opinion, this is one of the best crime films I have ever seen and it ranks right up there with the Godfather.As for Chicago Overcoat the title refers to a 1940's term for a gangster rubbing out his opposition and when the dead guy is in his coffin, he is termed to be wearing a Chicago overcoat. The film is well worth watching and I must say I like the way the film ended. I will say no more but encourage you to watch the film. I rate it a 6 out of 10.

I really wanted to like this movie. But within the first few minutes its attempt at being a film noir was an epic fail. The script read like a theatrical production rather than a cinematic feature. And every character was a cliché: The main character, Lou, is an aging mob soldier who requests a murder contract in an attempt to capture his younger glory days. Add to that his longtime spurned lover, his dysfunctional daughter, his young and innocent grandson, and the pair of big city cops on his tail. Not only were all of the characters a cast of clichés, but the storyline was as well. To add to it, every character had one dimension of emotion, which was anger. It gave the audience no reason to like anyone or remain engaged in the story. By the end, this film became a caricature of itself.

Chicago Overcoat should of stayed where it belongs, the film is ripped with clichés and concepts mashed into a mob film although it isn't much of a terrible film to watch. The film tries to convey film noir with voice over narration, a gritty and dark world mashed with the mafia- setting and it's quite annoying considering this film was released three years ago. It attempts to convey so much of that set period even though its setting is in modern times. The film is ripped with clichés and overused concepts that maybe not exaggerated to a point but it's evident that the director wants to derive other classic films into his; first of all, the main character played by Frank Vincent is a old hit-man, Lou Marazano working for the mafia who XXX days before retirement and even at the start, it was implied that. Plus there is a rigid, no-nonsense, hard-boiled detective, Ralph Maloney (Danny Goldring) who's investigating a murder by Lou who "doesn't play by the rules" and it just felt like Nick Nolte's character from 48 Hrs plus a plethora of other detective films. It just felt contrived that they would go through lengths to make it a noir film and released it as unique.What even disappoints me is the dialogue, it felt cheesy to the point that they felt to conceal the cheesiest and I find the characters' interaction throughout the film, laughable. One huge example is when the detective is interrogating Vincent's character, that scene was so pointless and irritating and the detective just came out as a chicken- s*** himself. I mean, he just constantly insults the main character due to his nature of sending flowers to the person that he killed and kept constantly asking the same question to him; be that of a chicken-s*** or f****t. What I found even baffling is he says that again in the end and it clearly shows that the writers of this film just lazily written this character to be no nonsense old cop that "doesn't play by the rules." I really like this detective at first but the writers seems to kill off this character with less impact to this storyline. And Vincent does not redeem any qualities as his character, he does play the mafia-so character well like in The Sopranos but with the bad dialogue, he is just a walking cliché of his own. I mean, he plays a stereotypical mobster and at one point wears black trench-coat attire and uses a freaking tommy gun near the end and the poster shot for the movie just felt like walking into a trap. There isn't much to the storyline, it just felt like a poor man's Sopranos with Phil Leotardo and Artie's wife in it as well. There are other actors as well specifically Armand from Gotti who plays the mafia boss and dozens of decent performances that I found not really lacking compared to the main characters of this film. It's not that much of a terrible film that of which I did not shut it off but the writing and dialogue plus the clichés mashed into this thing came into decent and bad experience.