Bland acting from a miscast ensemble of young actors, an overwhelmingly cliche-ridden screenplay and incredibly uninspired direction make MOBSTERS one of the most fogettable theatrical releases of 1991. In New York City circa 1917 to 1931, four young hoods--Lucky Luciano (Christian
Slater), Meyer Lansky (Patrick Dempsey), Bugsy Siegel (Richard Grieco) and Frank Costello (Costas Mandylor)--not only grow up together on the mean streets of the East Side, but combine forces to become the most infamous quartet of gangsters the country has ever known.
Helmed by TV commerical director Michael Karbelnikoff in a singularly inauspicious debut, MOBSTERS is shallow and flat; empty where substance is demanded and barren where it should be fertile with fresh ideas and innovations. While movies about men like Luciano, Costello, Siegel and Lansky have
been made frequently and will doubtless be filmed again in the future, these gangsters have never appeared younger than in MOBSTERS. So young in fact that all four actors interpreting them come across more like fraternity boys play-acting at being 1930s-style hoodlums than the real thing. leave a comment
