Brass, Brassiest, Brasco

Rating: Null/10 (29 June 2004)

A more gritty look at New York mafia life than we are used to meets an idiotic domestic storyline we've seen all too often. During the mid 1970s FBI Agent Joe Pistone(Depp) successfully infiltrated Sonny Black's Brooklyn arm of the Bonnano family by winning the trust of aging hit-man Lefty Ruggierio(Pacino). While the film starts out very promising with the bonding of Pacino and Depp and some good nuts and bolts gangster action, the whole thing soon becomes trivialized and ultimately destroyed by a pointless domestic storyline that keeps eating away at the main narrative like termites, before consuming it utterly in the final reels. An unromantic take on Mob life is a refreshing departure from what we are usually fed. Very matter of fact and business-like killings, and penny ante heists more accurately reflect the day to day life of a wise guy if this is movie is accurate. Depp and Pacino might be said to red line the NY accent, but they don't. Born bred NYers talk like this and worse. But its Anne Heche or her character which makes an otherwise interesting enjoyable movie sorta unwatchable. The whole notion of Depp battling a rocky marriage while performing an undercover sting operation should be left for the soap operas and bad TV crime shows.