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Directors: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Release Date: October 11, 2002
Rating: R (for violence, language and some drug use)
See it on Amazon
With a title like Knockaround Guys, you figure you should probably bring a raincoat for the amount of blood that will splatter off the screen from guys' knocking people around. To my surprise, this movie ended up being a very intriguing story with an odd cast of characters.
 When I say "odd cast", I never really expected see actors like Vin Diesel, Seth Green, and John Malkovich in the same movie together. It is truly a diverse group of actors, but the diversity worked.
Barry Pepper plays Matty Demaret, the son of an infamous mobster in Brooklyn. After being rejected for his 14th job interview in a year merely because of his father's reputation, Demaret decides that trying to live an honest life is impossible and wants to throw himself fully into the life of crime he's turned away from since he was 12. This is easier said than done when Demaret's father doesn't trust him further than delivering takeout food. To prove himself to his father, Demoret takes on a more high profile job. When things don't go as planned, Demaret and his friends (including Vin Diesel and Seth Green) attempt to clean things up before his father finds out.
Knockaround Guys is the debut of directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien. This is a great movie to start a career off with. The directing and acting complimented each other as I felt I knew every character through and through. The directors walked a precise line as they gave away just enough of each character without revealing too much. Even with the characters that only had a few lines, there was the sense that I knew them what kind of people they really were.
Although Vin Diesel was once again typecast as the "tough guy with a rough personality", he played the character perfectly. He should, he's had enough practice.
John Malkovich was also typecast as the creep that makes you feel dirty just by being in his presence. He has yet to play this role wrong. Seth Green has been in various comedy movies and TV shows and is probably most remembered as "Scotty" from the Austin Powers series, but with this movie, he has proven that he can play more than just the goofball.
Interesting notes
One of the scenes in the movie included a shot of the World Trade Center. That led me to research the actual filming dates of this movie. It turns out Knockaround Guys was originally scheduled for release back on January 12th, 2001. It was then rescheduled five times until it finally made its October 11, 2002 release. That means this movie was going to be released before Vin Diesel's blockbuster hits Fast and the Furious and XXX. He may be a 'big star' now, but this movie was shot while Vin Diesel was just an up-and-coming.
The true meaning of the movie missed
The main problem with this movie is that the general plot is nothing new - mobsters, a job gone wrong, clean-up, etc. Because of this, most movie goers and critics will watch Knockaround Guys and pass it off as just another mobster movie. People coming to that conclusion are missing the underlying theme of the story: A man growing up his entire life denying who his family is and finally coming to a crossroads to decide if he will fully embrace or entirely shun the lifestyle he's never been able to avoid.
Although containing a recycled scenario, Knockaround Guys has an underlying theme that most people (not just sons of mobsters) face in their own lives.
Related links:
Knockaround Guys Official Site |
