In the Kingdom of the Blind, the Man with One Eye is King

Nick Vallelonga – 1995 – USA

This is one extremely bizarre mafia-related chamber-drama vanity-piece by writer, director and star Nick Vallelonga, whose claim to fame is having been an uncredited bit player in various far superior mob movies such as The Godfather (1972), Prizzi’s Honor (1985) and GoodFellas (1990).  Instead of being inspired by those films, however, Vallelonga is fairly brazen in ripping off Reservoir Dogs (1992) right and left.  Granted, hardly any filmmakers making crime movies in the 90s were not heavily influenced by Quentin Tarantino, but Vallelonga barely makes an effort to disguise various situations and even dialogue being lifted straight from Reservoir Dogs.  Despite having been on the sets of some of the best directors ever, Vallelonga seems to have learned nothing.  His shots are framed with the simplest competence and no originality, and even some quite good actors – notably William Petersen – are compelled to emote at a level so extreme that it’s alternately embarrassing and simply exhausting.  For no discernible reason, Michael Biehn and Paul Winfield appear in only one scene each at the beginning of the film, but unfortunately they are probably the two best things in it.  The rest is all pumped-up histrionics set in an empty warehouse after some kind of caper goes awry.  (Sound familiar?)