Underworld (1997)

Good concept, poorly executed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I love this movie. I love the mood, the cinematography, the settings, the music, and the cars. I love all of the actors. I love the script.This is the kind of movie in which the viewer may not know exactly what's going on for awhile, but that's OK. Just sit back and enjoy. You as the viewer are supposed to be confused throughout the first act, and are supposed to try and piece together the information for yourself. By the middle, if you paid attention, you know what's going on, and can follow the film to it's conclusion.What it's about: Two underworld figures form an uneasy alliance as one of them, a possible psychotic, just paroled mystery man, searches for a man named "Richard Essex", and marks names off his "naughty/nice" list.PS) If you liked this movie, you will also like a movie called TRIGGER HAPPY, or alternately, MAD DOG TIME, also written by Larry Bishop. It has a huge cast, that includes Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Lane, Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, and many others. Check it out! PS #2) If you want to watch this in a great marathon of good unknown '90's movies, watch it with THE IMMORTALS (Eric Roberts) and WILD SIDE (Christopher Walken). Please take that recommendation with the knowledge that all of these films have violent and sexual content.SPOILERS below: The backstory going in, if you want to dive in without having to figure anything out initially, is as follows: Frank Gavilan (Joe Mantegna) is a successful nightclub owner and organized crime figure. Johnny Alt (Dennis Leary) is his best friend since childhood, but they haven't seen each other for a long time, because Johnny's been in prison, until Father's day, the night this movie begins.Frank has an alliance with Ned Lynch (Larry Bishop), who's also big in the underworld, but not as big as he wants to be. After a long time, Ned has finally gotten his own crew to be as big, and control of as many good rackets, as he's dreamed, and feels he's ready to make some big moves and cement his status.Everyone's afraid of the deadliest crime figure in town, Richard Essex. The night Johnny Alt is released from prison, finding Richard Essex is his highest priority.

This very underrated film is a great example of modern film noir. It is classic Leary, and I heartily recommend it if you like your gangster movies quirky and twisty. The ending is a shock, and the path to get there, the story told by Dennis Leary's character is a wild ride. Give this film a chance, it deserves it.I read a review which compared the film unfavourably to Pulp Fiction, it is unfortunate that title was mentioned on the back of the DVD, don't blame anyone but the marketing dept. Underworld has more in common with The Two Jakes than Pulp Fiction. As you can see I loved this film, it gets a massive thumbs up from me.

Spoilers!While this film is entertaining if you like violent mafia related movies, it's wholly unoriginal and confusing to boot. The main ingredient seems to be Denis Leary being violent, causing violence and enjoying it all. This is also the best ingredient. The other main ingredient is Joe Mantegna being, well, Joe Mantegna like he always is. Not bad either.But the plot is weak. It's Cape Fear combined with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. But the main rip-off has to be John Woo. For two scenes. 1) The scene in which the 7 hitmen shoot eachother is a classic John Woo scene. 2) The final scene where the 4 people hold guns to eachother is basically a clone of the classic standoff scenes John Woo always uses.Furthermore, the scenes of the trunk copy John Woo. The usage of two guns copies John Woo (Dan "Iceberg" Eagan) and the list goes on and on.But hey, not all movies can be original.

If there was a list to mark the worst movies in history (actually there is on this page), I think Underworld could probably top that list. Given, Denis Leary put on a great job, shooting people and making wisecracks, the movie had no direction and I don't even think the director knew what the hell to do with it. This script belongs in a wastebasket. When one man makes your movie somewhat (remember I said somewhat) watchable.....there's problems.GRADE: F