The Crew

What do you get when four old mobsters in a Florida retirement hotel are threatened with eviction because young blood is moving in on their turf? What happens when they stage a murder just to scare off the crowd - but the local drug lord thinks a new regime is moving in on his territory? What happens when you cast Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel as the four old mobsters from New Jersey? You get The Crew - a humorous film that satires some of the best moments of Goodfellas while at the same time giving us yet another film to compete with Space Cowboys in more ways than one.

The film was entertaining - there are plenty of jokes that people might miss if they aren't of an "older" persuasion, but it was still fun. As expected, it was filled with some great music choices. The usual smooth big-band mob-type songs were there, as well as a fun and moody score by Steve Bartek.

The songs include "Let's Ball" by Joey Pastrana, "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" by Cab Calloway, "Swingin' Around" by Tony B, and "Pennies From Heaven" by Louis Prima. All of those seem to fit into the whole "Italian mobster" stereotype, and it works just fine in the film as accompanying background music while the four leads perform their antics.

Mr. Joe Pesci, the ultimate mobster (just imagine what he would do to you with a pen if you looked at him funny), even has a track here - he performs "Old Man Time" - and it's quite well done. A song that made no sense to my ignorant ears, as it was all in Italian, was "Tarantella Napoletana Comandata" by The Linguini Brothers - but it was a fun song indeed. The one track I kept listening to, though, was a modern remix called "Mambo Italiano (Meatball Parmigiana Mix)" performed by Wiseguy Orchestra. It shows up in the film during a montage sequence when the drug lord is eliminating his enemies because he thinks they killed his father (when our retirees were actually involved). It's a funny sequence only because of the music. Again, it's great fun to listen to.

Steve Bartek's score only has two cuts on the album -a shame since it was quite enjoyable and I wish I could have heard more. His score utilizes the 1960's electric guitar and heavy brass with lots of conga percussions. Sweeping into a jazzy motif with electric organ, horns and guitar, "Wise Guys and Mother's Eyes" is a good sampling of the type of score he wrote for the film. It's a bit of homage to other gangster films - the shrill brass hits are definite throwbacks. The story does call for dramamtic moments - Richard Dreyfuss' main character is searching for his daughter, who turns out to be the head detective investigating all of the crimes that pop up due to the Crew's antics. Here Bartek delivers, and the ensuing string section is emotional and appropriate.

The album only runs 35 minutes long - and that's with a little over seven minutes of score. It could have been longer, and it probably would have been more enjoyable. But regardless of that fact, the songs included on the album are definitely worth listening to, and I can only hope that a more substantial score release is planned for the future. Until then, I'll continue to listen to the "Mambo Italiano" remix.