One of the greatest crime movies of all time, "The French Connection" is William Friedkin's gritty drama based on a true story. Gene Hackman stars as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a no-nonsense, rule-breaking cop who gets caught up investigating a case in which the Italian mob is bringing drugs into America with the help of a French heroin-smuggling syndicate. But this isn't an open-and-shut case. The lawmen are seemingly foiled at every turn, and things end on a shocking, bleak note. It's an amazing movie with one of the best chase sequences ever captured on film. "The French Connection" was released nearly 53 years ago, which means many of its cast members have left us, along with director Friedkin, who died last year. But a few are still around. So here are the only major actors still alive from "The French Connection."
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Read more: The 20 Best Detective Movies Ranked
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- 2/17/2024
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
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Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired Somewhere in Queens, Ray Romano’s debut feature as a director that bowed at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Roadside plans a theatrical release in 2023 for the comic drama that Romano stars in, co-wrote with Mark Stegemann and also produced.
“Ray Romano has delivered an outstanding directorial debut, creating a vibrant family tapestry that is immediately relatable and heartfelt. We are very proud to be distributing the film with our partners at Roadside and feel it will really connect with audiences,” Eda Kowan, Lionsgate’s executive vp acquisitions and co-productions, said in a statement on Tuesday.
In the film, Romano stars as Leo Russo, who lives a simple life in Queens, New York, with his wife, Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son (Jacob Ward), and Leo’s Italian American relatives and neighbors. That includes Lo Bianco...
Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired Somewhere in Queens, Ray Romano’s debut feature as a director that bowed at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Roadside plans a theatrical release in 2023 for the comic drama that Romano stars in, co-wrote with Mark Stegemann and also produced.
“Ray Romano has delivered an outstanding directorial debut, creating a vibrant family tapestry that is immediately relatable and heartfelt. We are very proud to be distributing the film with our partners at Roadside and feel it will really connect with audiences,” Eda Kowan, Lionsgate’s executive vp acquisitions and co-productions, said in a statement on Tuesday.
In the film, Romano stars as Leo Russo, who lives a simple life in Queens, New York, with his wife, Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son (Jacob Ward), and Leo’s Italian American relatives and neighbors. That includes Lo Bianco...
- 10/18/2022
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Although Ray Romano has dabbled in writing quite a bit, including a series he created called Men of a Certain Age, the star is now moving to the big screen with perhaps his most ambitious project yet. The film, Somewhere In Queens, draws its comedy and drama from a very somewhat overbearing but likeable and recognizable Italian American family.
Again Romano is borrowing from his own life, in this case his wife’s family in particular for the script he co-wrote with Mark Stegemann. This time he not only writes but also directs, produces and stars as Leo Russo, married to his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) and bringing up a son, “Sticks” (Jacob Ward), whose talent for hoops in high school makes Dad proud especially when...
Again Romano is borrowing from his own life, in this case his wife’s family in particular for the script he co-wrote with Mark Stegemann. This time he not only writes but also directs, produces and stars as Leo Russo, married to his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) and bringing up a son, “Sticks” (Jacob Ward), whose talent for hoops in high school makes Dad proud especially when...
- 6/11/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Regent Entertainment
A droll Mafia-movie sendup, "Friends and Family" centers on a lavish deception by a debonair gay Manhattanite who hasn't come out to his parents -- as a mob enforcer. Greg Lauren and Christopher Gartin ably lead an amiable cast of newcomers and seasoned pros, portraying devoted partners in life and crime who pose as caterers, eagerly abetted in their scheme by the Sicilian family for which they serve as trusted lieutenants.
The script by Joseph Triebwasser economically unfolds the rich setup but doesn't fully mine its comic potential, content to play gently with types rather than delve into characters. Nonetheless, this painless, sweet comedy could cook up niche action among the "gays and grays" distributor Regency is targeting when it opens May 16 in Los Angeles before a rollout into other markets.
Culture clash looms over the sophisticated Patrizzi clan, headed by the even-tempered Victor (Tony Lo Bianco), as two sets of Midwestern parents prepare to descend on New York. The Torcellis are visiting son Stephen (Lauren) and his boyfriend, Danny (Gartin), while Patrizzi daughter Jenny (Rebecca Creskoff) and her fiance Brian Lane Green) await the arrival of his folks.
Beth Fowler and, especially, Frank Pellegrino are believable as the intrusive Mrs. Torcelli and her mild-mannered husband. The Jennings, on the other hand, are a cartoonish whitebread duo who secretly lead a ragtag right-wing militia and who seize upon the trip to the Big Bad Apple as an opportunity to wage war against the "occupying federal army." Tovah Feldshuh is the unlikely leader of the plot, overdoing the comic shtick as the mom/mastermind who's perpetually exasperated with her inept husband (Patrick Collins).
The funniest mom here is the fierce Patrizzi matriarch (long-time-no-see Anna Maria Alberghetti). Unwilling to accept the truth about her sons (Danny Mastrogiorgio and Lou Carbonneau) -- straight men with talents for cooking and clothing design but no taste for the family business -- Stella repeatedly tries to convince her husband of their toughness.
Over Stella's objections, the Patrizzi sons are put to work preparing an extravagant dinner party to celebrate Stephen's father's birthday, with the family's brawny hit men enlisted as waiters for the central couple's phantom catering company. A friend of Stephen and Danny's (an exuberant Edward Hibbert) promptly begins coaching the wiseguys -- not in table service but in "The Sound of Music", Liz Taylor's marriages and other essential knowledge for any self-respecting gay man.
There's something deliriously fresh about the collision of queens, mobsters and white supremacists, but rather than igniting in comic sparks, they meet mildly. Debuting film director Kristen Coury has a feel for interpersonal dynamics but is less confident when staging larger groups, and the hoped-for hilarity doesn't quite materialize in the climactic sequence, which forgoes friction in favor of the familiar.
As the loving couple who know their way around automatic weapons but haven't a clue about spatulas, Lauren and Gartin are appealing and, with Lo Bianco and Pellegrino, come off best here for not trying too hard. The low-budget pic's production values are fine overall, with the exception of harsh, distracting lighting in early scenes.
A droll Mafia-movie sendup, "Friends and Family" centers on a lavish deception by a debonair gay Manhattanite who hasn't come out to his parents -- as a mob enforcer. Greg Lauren and Christopher Gartin ably lead an amiable cast of newcomers and seasoned pros, portraying devoted partners in life and crime who pose as caterers, eagerly abetted in their scheme by the Sicilian family for which they serve as trusted lieutenants.
The script by Joseph Triebwasser economically unfolds the rich setup but doesn't fully mine its comic potential, content to play gently with types rather than delve into characters. Nonetheless, this painless, sweet comedy could cook up niche action among the "gays and grays" distributor Regency is targeting when it opens May 16 in Los Angeles before a rollout into other markets.
Culture clash looms over the sophisticated Patrizzi clan, headed by the even-tempered Victor (Tony Lo Bianco), as two sets of Midwestern parents prepare to descend on New York. The Torcellis are visiting son Stephen (Lauren) and his boyfriend, Danny (Gartin), while Patrizzi daughter Jenny (Rebecca Creskoff) and her fiance Brian Lane Green) await the arrival of his folks.
Beth Fowler and, especially, Frank Pellegrino are believable as the intrusive Mrs. Torcelli and her mild-mannered husband. The Jennings, on the other hand, are a cartoonish whitebread duo who secretly lead a ragtag right-wing militia and who seize upon the trip to the Big Bad Apple as an opportunity to wage war against the "occupying federal army." Tovah Feldshuh is the unlikely leader of the plot, overdoing the comic shtick as the mom/mastermind who's perpetually exasperated with her inept husband (Patrick Collins).
The funniest mom here is the fierce Patrizzi matriarch (long-time-no-see Anna Maria Alberghetti). Unwilling to accept the truth about her sons (Danny Mastrogiorgio and Lou Carbonneau) -- straight men with talents for cooking and clothing design but no taste for the family business -- Stella repeatedly tries to convince her husband of their toughness.
Over Stella's objections, the Patrizzi sons are put to work preparing an extravagant dinner party to celebrate Stephen's father's birthday, with the family's brawny hit men enlisted as waiters for the central couple's phantom catering company. A friend of Stephen and Danny's (an exuberant Edward Hibbert) promptly begins coaching the wiseguys -- not in table service but in "The Sound of Music", Liz Taylor's marriages and other essential knowledge for any self-respecting gay man.
There's something deliriously fresh about the collision of queens, mobsters and white supremacists, but rather than igniting in comic sparks, they meet mildly. Debuting film director Kristen Coury has a feel for interpersonal dynamics but is less confident when staging larger groups, and the hoped-for hilarity doesn't quite materialize in the climactic sequence, which forgoes friction in favor of the familiar.
As the loving couple who know their way around automatic weapons but haven't a clue about spatulas, Lauren and Gartin are appealing and, with Lo Bianco and Pellegrino, come off best here for not trying too hard. The low-budget pic's production values are fine overall, with the exception of harsh, distracting lighting in early scenes.
- 5/16/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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