Saban Films Mob Town Review: An Interesting Story About The Mob!
“Mob Town” is the story of that incident, which closing text informs us compelled FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to finally admit in public that the Mafia existed…
Now before you think this is a shoot’em up mafia movie, think again, it plays like a comedy, but it’s a drama.
The film is loosely inspired by an ill-fated 1957 Mafia summit that took place in the sleepy upstate New York town of Apalachin.
In Danny A. Abeckaser’s film, we see New York State Trooper Ed Croswell, played by David Arquette while on a date with single mother Natalie (Jennifer Esposito) notices something strange. It also sets the pace for the film.
The Premise of the Movie:
Mob Town follows one police officer’s undisputable drive to take down the mob and organized crime. The first inclination that something illegal is going down in his town happens when New York State Trooper Ed Croswell stops a noted cigar-chomping gangster. His suspicions run high with the mobster believing some wrongdoings are happening. Croswell instantly pinpoints who he thinks is behind it all, so he turns to Barbara, a local soda-bottler with known underworld ties. Ed soon initiates an investigation
Croswell is determined to make this happen and will stop at nothing as more strange activity starts to take place in his quiet little upstate New York town. His undisputable drive to take down the mob and organized crime becomes his obsession. Then when a dozen swanky Cadillacs and Chevys driven by the crooks all head to one location, he believes he has achieved his goal.
The Overall Feel of Mob Town:
The film is a bit choppy as it feels like it is taken from newspaper headlines regarding the Nov. 14, 1957 incident. Abeckaser’s film lays out its premise about how 62 mafiosos were arrested that day at the estate of Joe Barbara (Abeckaser). All because Vito Genovese (Robert Davi), who wanted to establish himself as the Luciano crime family’s boss of bosses (“capo dei capi”) in the wake of taking out rivals Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia. We just found Mob Town interesting how the mafia became so sloppy they all got caught.
What to Expect from Mob Town?
The film is a low-rent Mafia tale filled with stale, clichéd ingredients. Have you ever had spaghetti with just plain tomato sauce and no ingredients to make it taste delicious? That is kind how Mob Town comes off. It lacks those monument moments to tell a historic true tale of what happened to the mob and how the RICO act was born.
On a Positive Note:
We enjoyed the film since it was about a little part of American history and the birth of what is now called the RICO act.
