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Charlie Hoboken

1998, Movie, NR, 85 mins

Charlie Hoboken: Review

CHARLIE HOBOKEN
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Chatty, plodding and virtually plotless, this off-kilter crime comedy about an older hired gun and his young partner has moments, but all too often falls wide of its mark. Austin Pendleton stars as Harry Cedars, a middle-aged New Jersey hired gun who's worried that his minimalist m.o. -- keep it clean, simple and safe -- has, along with the rest of his life, become boring. His wife Angie (Tovah Feldshuh) suspects Harry's been listening to sharp-dressed young gun Charlie Hoboken (Ken Garito), who's been urging Harry to throw a little spice -- maybe even a poisoning or two -- into their dull routine. Charlie can afford to be a little reckless: He's got a rich father (George Morfogen) and a day-job at Dad's lucrative insurance company. But he wants more from his life of crime, even if it means pulling it out from under Harry. Writer-director Thomas F. Mazziotti handles the proceedings with a certain gutsy confidence and the cast is uniformly solid, but the too-clever script is hopelessly overwritten. Mazziotti commits extended metaphor mayhem without remorse: Insurance terminology, colors, parts of speech and condiments and are all used, abused, mixed and mismatched to the point of total incomprehensibility. At one point, Charlie's step mother (Anita Gillette) actually begs, "Let's drop the metaphors for a minute!" and it's without a doubt the best idea in the whole movie. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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