This movie has been a lot of great reviews. Brad Pitt is the main character, and he's also been getting good reviews for his performance, but it also has Sopranos alumni James Gandolfini, Vincent Curatola (Johnny Sac), Max Casella (Benny), as well as Ray Liotta, Sam Shepard, and others.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764234/


There's no complete, official trailer yet but this clip is hilarious...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiwskzvhYag

That movie's director previously made THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD with a very good, under-appreciated performance by Pitt.

This looks like our sort of movie.

I'm very much looking forward to this film. It's based on George V. Higgins' novel "Cogan's Trade." In my opinion Higgins was the second best crime novelist who ever lived, ranking just behind Elmore Leonard. Higgins' "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" is certainly the best crime novel ever written, but Elmore Leonard's overall body of work is just unparalleled.

Now back to the movie adaptation. Great cast, but I'm a little confused by the change of setting. The novel (like almost all of Higgins' books) was set in Boston. The film seems to be set in New Orleans. I'm just surprised because Boston has kind of become a go-to location for crime dramas in recent years ("The Town," "Gone, Baby, Gone," etc.).

As an aside, Pitt and Gandolfini have worked together once before on the very forgettable "The Mexican." I'm hoping this one is better.

The setting is probably due to Brad Pitt's efforts to support New Orlean's recovery post Katrina. He lives there and has a hand in reconstruction efforts throughout LA, so he probably made it a condition that filming would be held there in order to help the local economy.

And I liked the Mexican! Gandolfini was great in that film!

I just read it was the director's decision (Andrew Dominik). Either way, I'm still looking forward to it .

Not to mention, unless my data is in error, but I believe the MA tax credits for movie productions were repealed.

I'm reminded of Marvel shot much of IRON MAN and THOR in New Mexico because of the tax credits, which got repealed and now the 3rd IRON MAN is shooting in tax-credit North Carolina, which is trying to repeal that same tax-credit.

C'mon America, don't export your movie shoots to India like you do your crappy jobs.

And that's no bullshit. This post almost belongs in the thread about the economy .

India is less likely than say Vancouver or Toronto We certainly don't mind up here

Case and point (excuse the double post) Vancouver was transformed into Bangalore, India for the filming of Mission Impossible 4

Those two movies being in Boston were probably due to the fact that Ben Affleck directed both of them and he's from Boston. Of course, there was also The Departed.

And that one featured two Boston-area guys in Damon and Marky Mark.

They were filmed in Boston because that's where the books were set. I agree with Ronnie, though. It's probably all about the tax credits.

It's a shame, too. Because Boston was really becoming a good spot for crime drama movies.

Off topic: Just about everything Dennis Lehane publishes gets optioned today, and if you take those stories out of Boston they're just not the same (full disclosure: I'm a big Lehane fan, so I thought I'd give him a free plug ).

Don't know if you've seen "The Other Guys" with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, but it's an incredibly stupid movie that had me shamefully laughing my butt off. Wahlberg plays an NYPD cop that seriously screws up and his punishment is to be paired with Ferrell. And what did his character do to deserve this punishment? While working at Yankee Stadium, he accidentally shoots Derek Jeter.

Wahlberg, being so very, very Boston, said that getting to shoot Jeter officially made this his very favorite role.

I had no idea Gone Baby Gone or The Town were books. Both great movies though.

I like to think we enjoyed the benefits of this weird collision of circumstances, people, and properties at the same time, same place to get these movies.

Another recent Boston "crime" movie I would add that others might disagree with me is SHUTTER ISLAND. Based off a Lehane book, and not technically in Boston but off the coast of MA but it is a crime thriller if nothing like the other movies of this fascinating sub-genre at all.

(Or if you really want to stretch shit, I would even add THE FIGHTER too. No not a "crime" movie obviously (despite Christian Bale) but it's Boston, it has Marky Mark and quite frankly whenever I see a boxing movie, I subconciously associate it with crime in general. Look at that recent "fixed" Olympic boxing match, people assume boxing in general is rigged. Not true, but the reputation remains for a sport that's fallen so far from when it was so high.)

I know what you mean, Ronnie. I get the same feeling when I watch the original "Rocky." Especially the early scenes when Rocky is still working for Gazzo. It's not in the crime genre at all, but I still get that feeling when I watch it.

Also agreed on "Shutter Island." Not a typical Marty movie, but he did a great job with it. Mark Ruffalo is still the best actor that no one ever heard of. But I think that's just how he likes it. I read that he lives in upsate New York and that he's very down to earth and "non" Hollywood.

Nobody ever mentions it, but notice the connection those movies have to "crime," however you may define it. What do I mean?

You mention Gazzo who was in the first two movies. Don't forget ROCKY III with Clubber Lang who trained for boxing while in jail, or ROCKY IV you had Ivan Drago legally murder Apollo Creed and gets pumped full of steroids and HGH by the Soviet regime, which I'm sure is illegal in global boxing as that movie's plot was about USSR getting into professional boxing.

ROCKY V you had a crooked Don King-type promoter, a transparent criminal (and the real King did actually murder some people) who corrupts his apprentice into basically assaulting Sly in public (and live TV) despite being the boxing heavyweight champ. (I know folks like the ROCKY movies, but Sly's scripts really got progressively dumber w/ #5 the real bologna for a series that started out as filet mignon.)

ROCKY BALBOA, that's a stretch to find a criminal connection. Off my head, I think you have that one kid that Sly takes under his wing to try to steer him from becoming another victim in that neighborhood's never-ending cycle of poverty and crime. (Or grow up into breaking people's thumbs for the local mobster.)



Well after THE AVENGERS, everybody knows him now and I'm glad for him. If he picks his next few parts right, he could become a major star (on his own terms) like Downey after IRON MAN.

Hopefully he won't get lost like what happened to Depp.

Hey if you guys wants some underrated Boston crime flicks, Denis Leary in "Monument Ave." (It's an absolutely brilliant film, highly recommend it. Directed by the late Ted Demme, who directed Blow) and Mark Ruffalo in What Doesn't Kill You based on the true story of Brian Goodman, a South Boston hood.

And, of course, they had a brief scene in True Romance before that...

"Don't condescend me, man."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKV-u2Uo3JU

I really can't wait for this flick. Adapted from Cogan's Trade, by George Higgins. He also wrote Friends of Eddie Coyle you say?

It's gunna be pretty fuckin' awesome if ya ask me.