Crime Story

I can't believe what I saw made the final cut-to-market. This film by Adam Lipsius should be a film school example of what NOT to do.

Firstly, this is the perfect example of how a score can make or break a film, and this has to be one of the worst. I'm used to the typical annoyingly loud, overbearing, non-stop and unfitting score in B-grade films, but this was a whole new level of annoying. At the start, I kept yelling at Dreyfuss to "answer the damn door!". But it was the score - a constant knocking sound. Throughout, you'll hear clanging, ringing, banging etc... was there even a composer in this production, or just some random tools in a garage being slammed around?

Then you have Lipsius' incoherent and convoluted story, with dialogue and scenes that will make you shake your head. Why did he shoot the bathroom door where Nan was if he loved and cared about her so much? Don't even get me started on the plot and technical issues, that made what was supposed to be a criminal underworld story, feel inept, unconvincing and boring as it gets. And that's a real shame, when this is supposed to be "based on true events", and you end up scratching your head and yawning by the end.

Next, you have the barely legible muddled dialogue of Dreyfuss, that when combined with his slow and poorly postured demeanor, I thought he was constipated throughout the entire film. Add in Pruitt Taylor Vince's character Tommy, and you have two geriatric actors trying to get through filming. Aside from their snail-paced movements (I'm sure blame falls on Lipsius' failure to direct his cast properly), the entire film's slow pacing, made the normally comfortable 98 min runtime feel endless. Even Mira Sorvino's performance seemed like it was her first ever acting gig (again, due to Lipsius' failure to direct his cast properly).

His (twitchy) camerawork and cinematography were just awful, and this film needed some serious editing. I really can't find anything redeeming about Crime Story. It's a very generous 3/10 from me (much better than the current 0% on Rotten Tomatoes), all going to the Oscar winners out of pity they'll have this mess on their resumes.

I'm no movie writer but this movie makes really no sense. Horribly put together. Halfway through I was like why am I still watching this movie. Waste of time.

Goodness! I've always had a soft spot for Richard Dreyfuss all the way back to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He just had this charm in him, his characters almost always give out a snickering smile even when the situation's serious. It's there in Jaws, Nuts, Goodbye Girl etc. And when I saw Dreyfuss' name headline this revenge actioner, I told myself, "this, I wanna see." I didn't doubt he could pull it off.

And truth be told, his Ben Myers does carry some weight of conviction. But that's about where the good stuff ends. Well, Mira Sorvino & Pruit Taylor Vince do throw in whatever character-acting chops they have into their scenes, but everything else falls into the category of Bruce Willis' latest cinematic hobby - straight to dvd territory. Bad lighting, patchy camera work, & sloppy editing. I could hardly believe that two Oscar winners in Dreyfuss & Sorvino landed into this mess. Taylor Vince included. What were they thinking? Or do they need to find new agents? Throw in other amateur actors whose screen demeanour quickly reveals that much, and you wonder, just what path did Dreyfuss take to come to this place at this stage in his career? I sure hope he doesn't tread the Bruce Willis path.

Extremely disappointed!!

Richard Dreyfus, Mira Sorvino top actors and horrible directing!! This movie was all over the place!!

I love any movies that have to do with mob bosses retired mob bosses anything that has to do with the mafia and watching this was nothing what I expected!

Waste of a rental but most importantly waste of 1hr 40min.

I read all the horrible reviews - and they were right!

You can have a magnificent portrait of a very messed up family, such as this! But ......

Just goes ta show ya that you can have great actors (they were having off days here) and what could have been a great story - and who knows why everything went topsy tervey - but it most certainly did.

Obviously the music budget was low. It was AWFUL. Hurt my ears it was so very bad. They tried to recover at the end (during the credits), but that piece swung too far in the other direction of what they assaulted our ears with during the movie.

All in all, a most unpleasant experience. And not so bad that it was at all fun. The sin of it is, it had great potential. Oh well.

I would suggest passing it up as have several other reviewers, but you know your gonna wanna watch it because how can it really be THAT bad!!??

Your mistake, not ours. Oh, wait!!! It was! PS - after "sleeping on it", I had to take it down a star. Yep. THAT bad.