Review of Deli, The

Introduction

Mike Starr plays Johnny Amico, a degenerate gambler and owner of the deli in the film title. He`s in debt upto his eyeballs and manages to sweet talk his creditors into giving him a little more time to pay them back. Among the many he owes money to are mobsters, all with the usual trashy dress sense.

Andy works for Johnny and runs the deli, he also has an abiding affection for the ladies. Pinky works at the deli and helps out, he`s also here to provide some comic relief. Lastly we have Mrs Amico, Johnny`s mother, a no nonsense Catholic Italian who likes to play the numbers game.

On top of Johnny`s debt problems, his mother`s $10 weekly gambling fix for a numbers game suddenly comes up good after five years. This is five years after Johnny stopped playing her numbers. Now he owes her too. What follows is how he tries to get himself out of this mess.

Video

Presented with a fullframe transfer, The Deli would have looked better with more space around the onscreen characters. As it is, everything important to the scene is framed dead centre which leads me to believe it was shot with a fullframe to begin with. However, it just looks claustrophobic. The quality of the video transfer is good with some dirt showing up from time-to-time. I also noticed the frame jumping slightly in a few scenes which can be distracting.

This looks like it was made on video as opposed to film, so the level of detail on show isn`t as high as one would expect and shows the films low budget origins.

Audio

This is a dialogue heavy film with no need of frills in the surround department. This and the low budget means we get a DD2.0 soundtrack. It sounds clear enough and doesn`t distort.

Features

Static menus with options for a photo gallery, a cast gallery and chapter selection. No subtitles or extra languages, no bios or production information. Poor.

Conclusion

The Deli has quite a cast. There are lots of familiar faces here, quite a few from The Sopranos and other television shows too, including Ice T and Iman (Mrs David Bowie). With the exception of Ice T, the faces on show in the film just can`t play along with the poor script. I`ve seen many of these stars shine much brighter so I know they can act. The writing here is poor, period.

It`s predictable and boring and you wonder what`s the point of the story in the first place, there`s nothing interesting and I didn`t find it entertaining in the slightest. The other story elements, aside from the main plot, are dealt with very superficially and we never get to really know the other characters that well. Plus, other than resolving the main plot point, we never sew up any of the other loose threads in the story.

What happens to the girls that Andy chats up? What happens to Pinky when he`s left to manage the deli on his own? Does Johnny give his mother the money he owes her, et cetera.

The idea of having the delicatessen as an anchor for the film, where a lot of the action and dialogue takes place, is a good one and you`d be forgiven for thinking that this has shades of Spike Lee`s, `Do The Right Thing`. It`s a shame the creativity stopped at finding this location.

I also found that the supposed humour doesn`t work for me either. It`s rated as `15`, and with the swearing used here I`m guessing that it`s not a movie aimed at kids. I thought the attempt at humour with the dialogue and musical cues was poor, relying on a slightly retarded character to get some cheap laughs. Don`t get me started on the editing. It`s choppy and untidy and this spoils the continuity of cutting between scenes. A little disconcerting at first, I never really got over it and would rather it was edited properly with time to spare before moving to the next scene.

The front cover proclaims that, "If you loved the Sopranos, you`ll love The Deli." I don`t think so. This mediocre film is not worth your time or money, steer clear.