HughBennie-777 Underwhelming, uneven Brooklyn saga about three boys coming of age in a surprisingly contemporary-looking Brooklyn--which is supposed to take place in the 80s--comes complete with an obligatory (and unwelcome) voice-over and empty performances. For all the male-bonding on screen between its three leads, one grows nostalgic for the freshness and humor of "Pope of Greenwich Village", "Mean Streets", or even an episode of "Hardcastle & McCormack". Subplot involving Freddie Prinze Jr., as a college boy trying to woo WASP princess Mena Suvari from across the East River, fails as Prinze Jr. evokes none of the charisma of the similarly challenged John Travolta character in "Saturday Night Fever". In fact, none of the movie's characters are interesting, with Caan an unlikeable, midget pizza-head to Prinze Jr.'s cute doofus, and this further dooms the movie's attempts at mixing mushy sentimentality and scenes of punctuating yet distracting violence. Also, the movie's t.v. style of editing, with its curious lack of master shots, never allows the actors to achieve any authenticity within its dialogue scenes, and this deflates the film's never-ending attempts at humor. Lots of accessory-after-the-fact, 80s pop culture scenery and name-dropping in the script are unnecessary, and, considering the fascinating disbanding of organized crime during the movie's time period, it's too bad the subject matter isn't in a better film and one not so steeped in cliché's. I won't even acknowledge the film's blatant quotes from "Goodfellas" and "Godfather". Hasn't every movie made about the most peripheral of characters related to mob activity already strip-mined the genre? Alec Baldwin brings the film some much-needed gravity. Scott Caan's impersonation of his father leaves one marveling not

phc-1 From the very first minute this movie annoyed me big time. Having Saturday Night Fever as my all time favorite movie, it was very hard to see Brooklyn Rules try to copy everything in the boys behavior directly from Travolta and friends. 'Don't touch my hair' when getting a BJ in the car with friends coming and knocking on the car window. Honestly; how can you steal a classic scene like that and put in in a wanna-be movie like this. I hated it! It even stole the whole setup between the boys. One being the religious oriented sweet guy (who gets killed), one being the bad guy, one being the vain gay going on about his hair. EVERYTHING stolen directly from Saturday Night Fever. Make your own god damn script next time!

JoeytheBrit This film was written by Terence Winter, one of the driving forces behind the Sopranos TV series and, given the reputation of that show (which I have to admit to never having seen), I was quite surprised by the routine nature of this film. Freddie Prinze Jr. finds himself out of his depth as Michael, a Brooklyn kid half-scamming his way through law school while trying to avoid becoming sucked into the mob life so adored by Carmine (Scott Caan), one of his closest friends.Much of the problem lies with the fact that everything that happens here we have seen before in better, more original gangster flicks. The story is OK, but the script rarely rises above the pedestrian and, despite some rather clumsy attempts to insert a number of 80s pop culture references there is no real feeling for time or place. Alec Baldwin, who appears as the local mob ruler is by far the best thing about this film. In fact, Baldwin's pretty good in everything he does these days, having successfully negotiated the thorny transition from leading man to character actor without falling foul of the pitfalls encountered by some of his contemporaries. The best scenes in the film are the ones in which he appears and aren't just the most violent incidents. There is more insight into the workings of the mob in the scene in which Baldwin sits down with another gangster to iron out a few issues between Michael and the local mob psycho than there is in the beatings and shootings, etc.Scott Caan is memorable, but it's difficult to be sure whether it is because he gives a good performance in his own right or because in a number of scenes he is so reminiscent of his father playing Sonny Corleone.While there's nothing new here, the picture is entertaining enough and is a relatively painless experience.

dilbertsuperman First off let me say the casting for this movie was blatantly and utterly retarded and it killed the movie for me. One of the main bad guys who is supposed to be a tough Italian mobster is a coddled Irish blue-eyed fop named Alec Baldwin- every scene he is in fails miserably in giving the tough guy Italian one-two punchola- he looks like he needs an Irish coffee and a warmed towel.A lot of voice overs in this movie to cover ground that may have been too difficult for the director to imagine onto film. That was a big minus too.Plusses- da usual tuff guys talking crap and knockin heads and getting some respect when they is out on da town wit dere dames.Final conclusion: the equivalent of methadone for the heroin that is goodfellas, below sopranos in accuracy or believability- but watchable and occasionally pretty good, it loses points since the topic has been covered much, much better in a wide number of other films that came before it.THE PLOT: Some guys that grew up in the neighborhood feel some growing pains as their closeness to several wiseguys intrudes on their lives. Gotti is used as a backdrop for street cred. It would have been better if a lot of stuff the voice over was talking about was instead part of the actual film.Goodfellas, The Godfather, Donnie Brasco, and reservoir dogs do a better wiseguy coverage than this flick- but this IS a watchable addition to the list, so foggedaboudit.