It's the summer of '58 and a Brooklyn neighbourhood becomes a battlefield for two street gangs to settle old scores. Leon (Stephen Dorff) and Bobby (Brad Renfro) formed the Deuces after their little brother died from a hot dose of heroin,and vowed never to let the drug hit their streets again.
The lethal dose was supplied by the Vipers' leader Marco (Norman Reedus) who after three years' prison time, comes back to the neighbourhood to seek vengeance and get the powerful backing of mob boss Fritzy (Matt Dillon)to sell heroin on the streets.
Marco believes it was Leon who snitched to the police and the violence begins with a bloody fight in the park. Fritzy warns the hoodlums that no one gets hurt without his say so, but the hatred between the two gangs is deep and Marco attacking Leon's girlfriend (Drea de Matteo) forces the latter to take the Deuces into a battle they might not walk away from.
Kalvert plays safe with a location seen in many stories from a New York neighbourhood, with greased hair youths hanging outside pizzerias and the lido, talking about baseball and other anecdotes of their generation. This type of film always has me humming, "Lollipop, lollipop " by the Chordettes, but despite some jazzed up MTV editing and library stock music to build up action scenes, you are drawn in to a story that teenage boys should love.
Dorff performs without any sign of an inflated ego and is superb as the street tough stuck between church and protecting his block. His fiery temper and flashes of violence are fuelled by the guilt he feels for his deceased brother. He's haunted by flashbacks of finding his corpse and his mother's anguish at seeing him walk through the streets cradling his lifeless body.
The tension between the gangs is heightened when Bobby starts dating Annie (Fairuza Balk), the sister of a Viper. This relationship borders on West Side Story (1961) territory, but both actors possess the ability not to deliver their declaration of passion like a soppy love poem. Renfro convinces as the impulsive younger brother wanting to get out of Leon's shadow and wage war against the Vipers. He is the narrator of the story, and therefore should be the lead actor, but the hero role is written for Leon and Renfro continually struggles to outshine the older actor.
Although Deuces doesn't have the boast of Robert De Niro directing, it is superior to A Bronx Tale (1993), in that it concentrates on the youths at war, rather than a portrayal of the neighbourhood wiseguys.
Dillon became famous as the youth with a tortured soul but shows little interest in offering his experience to the new generation of urban tales; seemingly stuck in auto-pilot as the pill-popping Mafioso whose greed leaves Leon staring death in the face.
Cashing in on the popularity of The Sopranos (1999) was a clever move, with Drea de Matteo as the standout performer from the heavily represented cast. While many of the actors in this film were watching their careers slide further away from the top level of American cinema; de Matteo further evidenced her progression from television to a respected film actress.
The final act sees the climatic fight between the Deuces and the Vipers,with the advantage continually changing, as double crosses and last minute rescues leaves you guessing who's going to come out on top. Life in a street gang rarely ends happily and the parting of the ways is inevitable for the Deuces.
If you are still young enough to remember the thrills of teenage rivalry and like your films to mix good fight scenes with angst and passion, then you should sit back and reminisce about your adolescent fantasy as the cool gang leader who didn't take sh*t from no one.
The lethal dose was supplied by the Vipers' leader Marco (Norman Reedus) who after three years' prison time, comes back to the neighbourhood to seek vengeance and get the powerful backing of mob boss Fritzy (Matt Dillon)to sell heroin on the streets.
Marco believes it was Leon who snitched to the police and the violence begins with a bloody fight in the park. Fritzy warns the hoodlums that no one gets hurt without his say so, but the hatred between the two gangs is deep and Marco attacking Leon's girlfriend (Drea de Matteo) forces the latter to take the Deuces into a battle they might not walk away from.
Kalvert plays safe with a location seen in many stories from a New York neighbourhood, with greased hair youths hanging outside pizzerias and the lido, talking about baseball and other anecdotes of their generation. This type of film always has me humming, "Lollipop, lollipop " by the Chordettes, but despite some jazzed up MTV editing and library stock music to build up action scenes, you are drawn in to a story that teenage boys should love.
Dorff performs without any sign of an inflated ego and is superb as the street tough stuck between church and protecting his block. His fiery temper and flashes of violence are fuelled by the guilt he feels for his deceased brother. He's haunted by flashbacks of finding his corpse and his mother's anguish at seeing him walk through the streets cradling his lifeless body.
The tension between the gangs is heightened when Bobby starts dating Annie (Fairuza Balk), the sister of a Viper. This relationship borders on West Side Story (1961) territory, but both actors possess the ability not to deliver their declaration of passion like a soppy love poem. Renfro convinces as the impulsive younger brother wanting to get out of Leon's shadow and wage war against the Vipers. He is the narrator of the story, and therefore should be the lead actor, but the hero role is written for Leon and Renfro continually struggles to outshine the older actor.
Although Deuces doesn't have the boast of Robert De Niro directing, it is superior to A Bronx Tale (1993), in that it concentrates on the youths at war, rather than a portrayal of the neighbourhood wiseguys.
Dillon became famous as the youth with a tortured soul but shows little interest in offering his experience to the new generation of urban tales; seemingly stuck in auto-pilot as the pill-popping Mafioso whose greed leaves Leon staring death in the face.
Cashing in on the popularity of The Sopranos (1999) was a clever move, with Drea de Matteo as the standout performer from the heavily represented cast. While many of the actors in this film were watching their careers slide further away from the top level of American cinema; de Matteo further evidenced her progression from television to a respected film actress.
The final act sees the climatic fight between the Deuces and the Vipers,with the advantage continually changing, as double crosses and last minute rescues leaves you guessing who's going to come out on top. Life in a street gang rarely ends happily and the parting of the ways is inevitable for the Deuces.
If you are still young enough to remember the thrills of teenage rivalry and like your films to mix good fight scenes with angst and passion, then you should sit back and reminisce about your adolescent fantasy as the cool gang leader who didn't take sh*t from no one.