Larry Bishop wrote three films in his career so far. The flashy but hollow Tarantino produced biker flick Hell Ride, the excellent pseudo gangster piece Mad Dog Time, and a little seen, mob fantasy film called Underworld. It was his his first effort, and it's a nice, bloody entry with some great actors and a dark, slow paced tone. Bishop has a very particular way with words that can be off putting and unnecessarily convoluted, as seen in Hell Ride. It's not for everyone, as we are subjected to extended sequences of characters speaking in cryptic, almost poetic passages, until it erupts into shootouts and long awaited physical conflict. Mad Dog Time is a little less dense, whereas this one is super compact in its story, spending most of the running time focusing on three primary characters just.. talking. Luckily, when you have Denis Leary, Joe Montegna and Annabella Sciorra as your three leads, you can make compelling work of little going on on the screen. Underworld takes place in the same flashy, almost dreamlike gangster world that Mad Dog Time did, and yet it's a little dirtier, as if it came from the other, nastier side of the tracks than the Rat Pack esque Mad Dog Time. Leary plays hotshot mobster Johnny Crown, fresh out of prison and on the hunt for a rival gang that murdered his father in cold blood. He slinks around dingy, dank urban street and dimly lit night clubs, embroiled in a spiralling plot that reaches pretty far beyond his simple need for revenge. Along with him is Joe Montegna playing a guy so mysterious he's got three different names, any or none of which may be his real one. Annabella Sciorra plays the tough moll and psychiatrist (!) Dr. Leah in that smirking, seductive fashion that only she can do. Other dirtbags involved in the whole violent circus are Dan 'The Iceberg' Eagan (James Tolkan, scarily stoic), wiseass villain Ned Lynch (Larry Bishop) and lizard like psychopath 'Smilin' Phil Fox (criminally underrated character actor Jimmie F. Skaggs, RIP). It's low key, it's different, but the plot is giddy, verbose fun, speckled with enough panache and vicious violence to keep genre fans happy.
Review of Underworld
