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Funeral
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by Evergreen Ent
Sales Rank: 37718
Price: $9.98
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Academy Award®-winner Christopher Walken (Pulp Fiction, Batman Returns), Chris Penn (Mulholland Falls) and Isabella Rossellini (Death Becomes Her, Don Quijote) star in this critically acclaimed tour de force of underworld betrayal and explosive retribution from celebrated director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant). In the 1930s, a powerful New York crime family is caught in lethal crossfire between union organizers and brutal corporate bosses. Against this turbulent backdrop, the family's three street-hardened brothers and the women they love are about to be plunged into a deadly confrontation with their enemies, with each other, and with their own dark heritage of violence, madness and murder. Ignited by the unforgettable performances of its brilliant ensemble cast, The Funeral is a provocative, unflinching crime-action thriller The New York Times applauds as, "Hot-blooded, broodingly well-acted!"
Viewer Reviews
"The Funeral" is a mob movie. However, it's different from many other mob movies you'll see. It's got a different premise, different dialogue, same actors.
You won't find Marlon Brando or Robert DeNiro here, but I think Christopher Walken fills in nicely. The Funeral is kind of like The Godfather mixed with Eulogy. Both of those films are completely different movies (one's a Best Picture winner with Al Pacino, the other is a forgotten comedy with Ray Romano) but I like that analogy so I'll continue. The movie opens in a house where several obvious members of organized crime are gathering around a coffin that contains a guy named Johnny (Vincent Gallo, 'Buffalo 66' & 'The Brown Bunny'). Johnny has recently been killed and through flashbacks we see some events leading up to Johnny's death and his brothers
Ray (Walken) and Chez's (the late great Chris Penn) search for Johnny's killer. While there's really nothing to say about much of the plot, there's plenty to say about the performances and about the script. The script for the film is really good and it's unlike any mob movie before it. The dialogue is quite different, as is the whole mood of the film. This is the first mob movie I've seen where a character, in this case Ray, is about to kill the man responsible for Johnny's death but firsts asks him why he did it. When the guy gives Ray an answer that is quite surprising, Ray almost doesn't kill him. Ray gives the guy a chance to explain himself. Now, that's something I've never seen before. Chris Penn's character Chez is completely different, he's crazy over his brother's death and appears to be slightly unstable. Then there's Vincent Gallo. While Gallo has established himself more as the writer/director/b.j. reciever for the controversial movie "The Brown Bunny"
and is best known for either that film of "Buffalo 66" his prior acting gigs have been overlooked. The only movie I saw with him acting and not writing/directing was "Palookaville" where he was quite good. Here, Gallo delivers one of his best performances. First of all, regular people will know who Christopher Walken and Chris Penn are before Vincent Gallo; but Gallo manages to hold his own against the two Hollywood Heavyweights. Gallo gets really into the character, says his dialogue perfectly, he has the look for it. Well, anyway, besides not just being a regular mob movie which makes it unique; it's also entertaining, has a great ending, and is completely overlooked by people. If you've liked movies like The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, or the TV show The Sopranos; you should be quite fond of finding something different here.
GRADE: A-
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Funeral
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