Lansky
Product ID: 5797132
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Product Description A new version of an old story - the great American dream. LANSKY tells of a young emigrant's rise from poverty to riches through hard-edged business sense ... and a ruthless ability to murder anyone who gets in his way. Richard Dreyfuss is LANSKY - the man who organized organized crime. .com Meyer Lansky, along with Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano, helped mold organized crime in America into "the Syndicate," a business run as efficiently and ruthlessly as any corporation. Richard Dreyfuss plays Lansky (as do Max Perlich and Ryan Merriman). Starting out with Lansky as an aging, ill, cranky man taking refuge in Israel, the film tells his life in a series of flashbacks, starting out as a young Jewish tough trying to hold his own against Irish gangs in New York. Lansky and his associates climb the ladder of crime over the years, turning Las Vegas from a quiet desert town into a swank gambling hot spot, eliminating any rogue elements or competition that could hurt the cause. Senator Estes Kefauver came along to put a dent in the Mob's activities by the l950s, but Lansky and company came through fairly unscathed. With direction by John McNaughton and a pungent David Mamet screenplay, this should be top-drawer stuff, but, oddly, it comes across as only average. The movie's chronological structure, jumping back and forth in time, becomes a little confusing, then irritating. Three actors playing the same man over the years make it a bit difficult to nail down his real essence, while several other characters are barely more than window dressing. Also, the Judaism of Lansky, Siegel, Rosen, and Rothstein is given short shrift in the story. With tighter editing and firmer direction, Lansky could have been very good, but as is, it's just what it is: a made-for-cable biopic. --Jerry Renshaw
R**X
Lansky is represented as such an unsympathetic figure that the movie is painful to watch
Lansky is represented as such an unsympathetic figure that the movie is painful to watch.
A**R
So so
Overall seemed to drag on. Not bad. Not great.
A**G
not nearly as good as i'd hoped
the flashbacks to Russia and to Brooklyn and forward flashes to Israel were clumsy and confusing and that's what ended it for me. Too bad because Richard Dreyfuss is an incredible actor ...someone who I"ll go way out of my comfort zone (genre wise) to watch him at his craft.
C**S
Four Stars
Dreyfuss was good.
K**.
Four Stars
Great story, strong acting!!
P**S
Four Stars
good
H**Y
Interesting person, boring movie
Very disappointing movie. Slow pace, dry, mediocre performance.
D**Y
Dreyfuss' Lansky
Good acting as expected ...Gr8 cast...But I wanted to know MORE about Meyer & how he got "connected". Left me hungry for more but all in all.... not bad.
S**R
Illeana Douglas (as Anna Lansky - nice to see her again after Goodfellas and her work ...
Richard Dreyfuss as a gangster !! - I had my doubts. However, all my concerns were forgotten as Dreyfuss turned in a stunning performance. In this he was not alone: mention should also be made of the late Stanley DeSantis (a most convincing Arnold Rothstein), Illeana Douglas (as Anna Lansky - nice to see her again after Goodfellas and her work on Six Feet Under) and Ryan Merriman (as a younger Meyer Lansky).If you like gangster filmographies, you should enjoy this one. Super film, great performances.
J**F
3/5
Good, but i've read the biography it's based on and the real story seems to be changed in places. Still worth watching if you have an interest.
R**O
Richard Dreyfuss as Lansky
Richard Dreyfuss portrays Meyer Lanksy the Jewish the gangster who knew the modern day godfathers of the mob. Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Seigel. The film is told in Flasbacks as Meyer waits for the us to extradite him to face charges from Israel. Its pretty good film made by HBO well acted in lesser hands could have fallen the cracks. Its a story about a man who has lost is way in life and is a former shadow of himself no matter how bad he his, he was a man who tried to survive in the world when Jewish people were being killed for no reason at all.
S**N
Calm but intriguing
Throughout the film we tried to identify with "The Godfather" and could see where characters came from. This bio-pic is fascinating in its depiction of a quiet man that we all know had a violant demeanor. I suspect Richard Dreyfus's portrayal does not capture the man's strength that must have been there in order for him to receive the respect he seemed to have received from the other gangs and mafia members. I imagine he would have been quite an unpleasant, imposing person. If the intention was to show the man and not the life he led, it works. For those of us who want another Godfather" movie it was mild. We enjoyed it imensely.
M**R
Five Stars
Giving this movie as a gift. It was exactly what i wanted and it came before Christmas!
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