Kill the Irishman (2011)

Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh. Starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer, Tony Lo Bianco, Laura Ramsey, Christopher Walken, Steve Schirripa, Linda Cardellini, Mike Starr, Tony Darrow, Vinnie Jones, Fionnula Flanagan, Bob Gunton, Paul Sorvino, Robert Davi, Marcus Thomas. [R]

Pedestrian, by-the-numbers crime saga depicting the life of Danny Greene (Stevenson), an Irish-American gangster who battled the Mafia for control of the Cleveland underworld. Flies through a slew of characters and personas in a rushed, herky-jerky fashion so that only the clichés hold the stitches in place; an entirely different (and likely superior) movie could be made out of just the parts that are hastily skimmed over or skipped altogether. More bombs than brains, and not a single well-developed supporting character (especially when it comes to what few females are on hand). There’s nothing here to distinguish it from the pack—the superficial pic purports to be based on a true story, but it would be more accurate to label it as being based on the screenplays of a couple dozen prior gangland dramas. Since it’s such shopworn material and the period/genre milieu is so generic, it eventually devolves into a waiting game while nearly everyone gets blown up or shot before the end. Kilmer plays a detective and narrates, but good luck figuring out why, since he keeps disappearing for long chunks of the narrative and very rarely engages with any of the other major players. Director Hensleigh scripted with Jeremy Walters, working off a book by Rick Porrello (“To Kill the Irishman”). Filmed in Detroit.

43/100