Hoodlum, a gangsta film with Lawrence Fishbourne & Tim Roth

[Neville]

Just seen this one, and it is quite curious, if you are into crime. It is a mixture between a blackspoitation movie (revises the NY gang wars of the 30s from the point of view of Bumpy Johnson, a black ghangster) but visually reminds of the Godfather trilogy.

While it has some flaws at the beginning (Bumpy is shown in a very positive way, tone is  too light) plus the ones you may expect from a movie like this one (brand new settings and wardrobes, while people is suppossed to be suffering the depression, poor retro music), it grows more and more interesting as the gangwars erupt and so does Bumpy's darker side. Fishbourne does a real good job, and so does Tim Roth as a nervous, trigger happy Dutch Schultz. Andy Garcia plays a dandy-esque Luciano, as well.

This one was directed by actor Bill Duke, and may easily be his best movie. Violence is sudden and strong, while the most gory moments are kept off, laconism and ellegance conbine well in his style, and the movie gets better and better as it becomes more dark and somber. Recommended for crime fans.

[Mofo Rising]

It's been a long while since I've seen this one, but I liked it.  Everybody else I knew didn't.

I'd go with most of your points.  I'd also like to add that I found Bumpy's friend, the comic relief, to actually be pretty funny.  Some actual charisma going on there.

Also, I was disappointed they didn't include Dutch Schultz bizarre death, which is legendary amongst the counterculture.  Heck, William S. Burroughs wrote a book entitled THE LAST WORDS OF DUTCH SCHULTZ, and the ILLUMINATUS trilogy has an entire section dedicated to deconstructing his deathbed speech.

Oh well.  Wouldn't have fit anyway.

[Neville]

Now you got me intrigued, Mofo. How did the fella die? In both this one and "Billy Bathgate he is ambushed on a public toilet. What are those famous last words?

[Mofo Rising]

http://www.bway.net/~abbot/gunshot.html">Dutch Schultz On His Deathbed

Yeah, he did get shot coming out of the toilet.  But he survived for a while and was transported to a hospital.  The police tried to interrogate him, but he was too far gone and all that came out of his mouth was a torrent of nonsense.  Here's a sample:

"Thank you, Sam, you are a boiled man; I do it because you ask me to. Did you hear me? I would hear it, the Circuit Court would hear it, and the Supreme Court might hear it. Come on, pull me up, sir. All right. Cam Davis. Oh, please reply. N.R.A. If that ain't the payoff. Please crack down on the Chinaman's friends and Hitler's commander. All right, I am sore and I am going to give you honey if I can. look out. We broke that up. Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast."

Sounds pretty kooky, but quite a few people have tried and succeeded in extracting meaning from it.  (Whether there's meaning there or not.)  Who knows?  Could've been interesting in the movie.  Maybe Tim Roth did such a good job dying slowly in RESERVOIR DOGS they didn't want to belabor the point.

[Neville]

Creepy. Maybe he dreamed he was on a trial, or facing an IRS inspection. I think LUciano was one of the few famous gangsters, together with Capone, who died by natural causes.

[Neville]

Creepy. Maybe he dreamed he was on a trial, or facing an IRS inspection. I think LUciano was one of the few famous gangsters, together with Capone, who died by natural causes.