It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story gives a fresh new take on the all so serious crime theme of the mobsters. Indeed, adding comedic aspects into such a theme is not really a new endeavor. But this time, instead of focusing on a character or a family in relationship towards other characters or families, the story approaches the theme as a multiple sub-stories of different focus characters weaved in altogether. What makes it nice is that those focus characters have their own unique brand of odds and quirks. The mob boss has the secret hobby of underwater breath holding, trying to break a world record. The septic cleaner man is somehow a dim wit, often unable to communicate his thought due to not getting the right words. Last, the deli butcher does the mob's dirty work in dispensing a dead body and loses his life goal after he wins his trifecta bet target for the last twenty years. The acting is quite a nice overall. Ethan Hawke portrayed the stupid character nice enough with adequate expressions. Seymour Cassel's is comparably the easiest among the three, but it has a bigger significance at the movie's end.

The movie might try to be a little bit too clever for it's own good, but it still kinda works. The tone might be a bit shifted at places, but for a low budget thriller, this is pretty good. The acting is decent, the story rolls along nicely.But something is still missing to make it great. While all the stories told are quite appealing (for one reason or the other), it is just too much coincidence and too much confidence in a few things. Although the end might be a little bit more rewarding for some than others, you could and should give it a try, especially if you like those sort of movies in general.

My wife picked out "Staten Island" (that was the movie's title and the title on the DVD. I'm not sure why IMDb has it listed as "Little New York") and we were both looking forward to it. Unfortunately, "Staten Island" was disappointing. Certainly there was a mix of humor, irony and some grim aspects. But after reading the description on the box, it failed to meet expectations.That said, Seymour Cassel was outstanding as a deaf, mute butcher who occasionally did work for the mob. You really felt for him throughout the movie. Ethan Hawke had a convincing time portraying a stereotyped "less than bright" septic tank worker. I'm not partial to Vincent D'Onofrio's limited acting abilities and he didn't fail to disappoint. I don't understand how he lands movie roles. He has enough trouble with his TV roles.If you're looking to rent a decent mob movie, I'd look elsewhere. While not horrible "Staten Island" left us wanting.

The introduction was very well done, and the acting across the board was quite good. Other than that you have a draggy film with lots of repeat footage that devolves into the Godfather as tree hugger as hippies take over a small woods. What? Drama into farce.How many times did we have to see Scully (?) come in to pick up his bologna? Each time with an extra second which reveals another detail in the plot, I suppose. The problem is that none of this is really important and after the fifth or sixth time you begin wondering if something is wrong with the CD.I really wanted to like this movie because my Dad grew up in Great Kills. And the background material was interesting. But despite the best efforts of the actors and actresses the movie never really went anywhere. A few poignant vignettes does not a movie make; at least not a good one.