Mob War
Mob War
| 11 October 1989 (USA)
Mob War Trailers

When the New York City police disrupt a big cocaine deal, the TV news reporters find John Falcone, a local mobster, nearby. They ask some tough questions, and Falcone decides he needs a public relations man to help burnish his image. He hires Todd Barrett, and he keeps Barrett in line with generous helpings of cocaine. Meanwhile, Falcone's unorthodox, violent, and sadistic methods get him cross-wise with Don Ricci, the boss. A mob war may break out. When Todd's wife is endangered, can the flack attack back at the racketeers?

Reviews
Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
InspireGato Film Perfection
Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
pocomarc Excellent casting is the strong point of this movie.The mob figures were believable.Especially good was the main bodyguard of the Jake LaMotta character.The patter of the mob people also rang true.And the choice of locations was believable.For example, the crummy furniture district where the head man's "office" was located.For those here who complain about the number of shots the pr man turned mob fighter missed, remember all the cocaine he took in the course of the movie. That doesn't help your aim.The movie was filled with totally believable patter from the crime characters.
sol1218 (There are Spoilers) Giving the mob a bad name by pushing coke/cocaine on the streets of New York City top mobster John Falcone, David Henry Keller,is called in and chewed out by the head man in the Mafia Don Ricci, Jake LaMatta. Falcone is told that from now on his drug pushing days are over and he's now back to shaking down and skimming off the pension funds of the city unions. Despite Don Ricci decision on his future Falcone has other ideas.Getting in touch with top New York public relations man Tod Barrett, Johnny Stoumper,to reinvent his image Falcone plans to knock off his replacement in the Mafia's drug operations Vince Petracco, Dan Lutsky. He also plans to take over the cocaine pipe-line from Columbia and the Columbia drug cartel in using a mercenary gang of ex-military men to take them out and then take over the cocaine trade in that country.The somewhat naive Barrett gets out tons of TV radio and newspaper spots about the "great humanitarian" John Falcone's work in his helping the poor hopeless and downtrodden of New York. Where behind the scenes Falchone starts a major and bloody gang war that results in dozens of people getting gunned down and blown up all over the tri-state area. With his top rival in the drug business Vince Petracco being blown to pieces, as he was getting his hair cut, at his favorite barber shop in downtown Manhattan.The mob gang war also effects the Columbian drug lords who came to the city to knock off Falchone in revenge for his having their cocaine operation taken over and men whacked. Which leads to them being easily wiped out as their more interested in getting high on coke then improving their aim and working in coordination with Falcone's enemy the Ricci mobsters. While all this is happening Falchone keeps Barrett in line by hooking him on coke-cocaine and later having his friend ace investigative reporter Marty Spostein, Steven Kaman, kidnapped and murder to bring the point home to the now terrified Barrett. Later after Barrett himself was kidnapped and tortured by Falcone's hoods he finds one of the Columbian mobsters stone cold dead in his refrigerator and his wife Whitney, Andrianna Mexwell, missing and possible kidnapped by the Falcone mob. Don Ricci himself escaping from being knocked off by Falcone's hoods lets out all stops to put an end to Falcone's reign of terror against the Five Mafia Famlies in NYC. But it's eventually the yuppie and nerdy PR man Todd Barrett, who reluctantly joins the Ricci Mob, together with part time boxer and Don Ricci hit-man Irish Mickey McCardle, J. Christian Ingvordsen,and Todd's wife Whitney who in the end does Falchone and his hoodlums in.Very violent but at the same time mindless gangster movie that has ex-boxing middleweight champ Jake LaMatta doing a good imitation of a Mafia Don and enjoying every minute of if. Johnny Stumper as Todd Barrett the PR man turned action hero is anything but convincing as he dukes, and shoots, it out with Falcone's hood at the conclusion of the movie. Todd uses up about as much ammunitions as a fully equipped German Panzer Division and not hitting anyone. Todd had to hit the gas tank of Falcone's car to finally put an end to this outrageously unbelievable but at the same time unintentionally funny gangster flick.
boblipton This is a movie without any redeeming values. Bad script, bad acting, bad cinematography, even bad foley work -- there's one scene in which the lead mafioso is pouring a couple of glasses of wine and it sounds like the mike is taped to the inside of a toilet bowl as someone is urinating into it. Another scene, inside a network newsroom, echoes. In the scenes where people are sitting inside cars, talking, they all shout. The makeup is awful. The public relations man's girlfriend sits in a darkened bedroom wearing a couple of pounds of mascara.There is so much to this movie that is awful, from the sheer brutality and stupidity of the characters to the script in which people keep screaming about respect, to some fat mobster who keeps cackling in the background that I can recall no movie which approaches this in its stupidity. Even the works of Ed Wood is suffused with good intentions. I suppose there is some purpose to this movie: if you want some one to never speak to you again, recommend this movie.
finkymalinky I purchased the DVD of Mob War on Ebay for $2, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. If anyone else is going to watch this movie, know that the acting that you will see is soap opera quality. Other than poor acting across the board, this movie's story line is not that bad. Its more about a image consultant's work for a high profile mobster than anything else. I'd recommend watching the movie if you buy it cheap. I give it a 5 out of 10.