Back in Brooklyn in 1958 an all out gang war ensued and the Deuce's were a tough group of guys. When a leader of the gang dies years earlier, his deal is jailed. Years later (1958), he is out and is ready to take vengeance upon two brothers Leon (Stephen Dorff  Blade, The Gate) and Bobby (Brad Renfro  The Client, Bully); leaders of the Deuces. But they won't go down without a fight.

I haven't seen an honest to goodness gangster movie since the nineties when "The Wanderers" first came out. The movie features and all-star cast as the aforementioned above along with Fairuza Balk (The Craft), Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), and Matt Dillon (The Outsiders) as the gang kingpin. I love the entire atmosphere as we get to see a truly sleek and visual story dealing with an all ensuing war between these gangs.

Unfortunately, as sleek and visual as this movie is, it's not one of the best gangster movies I've seen; It's possibly the worst. We get a nonsensical, clichéd movie with a contrived plot and go-nowhere characters. First off, the cast, though big, is pretty useless. We have a paper thin love story between Renfro and Balk that is very reminiscent of "Romeo & Juliet" yet comes off as forced and seems too much like a plot device. There's also a major waste of talent including Matt Dillon who is very powerful as the kingpin of the gangs yet barely does anything except scowl, complain and appear on occasion, Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos) plays the neighborhood priest, father Aldo who urges the two brothers not to adhere to the temptations of war, yet, once again, he is barely featured throughout the entire movie and never truly plays a pivotal role in the plot development. Last but not least, we have Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) who is unbearable as Scooch, the wannabe gang member who hangs around the "Deuces" panting and kissing their butts. He is also a typically useless character and doesn't do much to help the story move along. Most of all, we get a cliché upon cliché upon cliché like stickball, debating about the Dodgers (or as they say it: Dodgas), and most of all poorly choreographed fights between rival gangs. We get terrible Brooklyn accents throughout the movie, mostly by Renfro who is as believable as a Brooklyn boy as Robert Redford is as Malcolm X.

In the end all we have here is a clunker of a movie which is nothing more than a waste of time, money, and prime acting talent. Wanna see good gangster movies? Check out the sidebar.