I wasn't expecting much from Brooklyn Rules, the Scorsese-Lite mob tale starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Alec Baldwin - and that's exactly what I got: not much. Entirely too familiar in story and intention, and unconvincingly cast and executed, Brooklyn Rules didn't work either as a mafia flick or a "coming of age" remembrance period piece. I'm not surprised it didn't get a wider release in theaters.

Telling the story of three 20-something friends from 1985 Brooklyn whose paths uneasily cross the Mafia's, Brooklyn Rules' lead character is Michael Turner (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), a smooth con man who has somehow managed to start climbing out of the old neighborhood by getting accepted into Columbia University. His boyhood buddies, Carmine Mancuso (Scott Caan) and Bobby Canzoneri (Jerry Ferrara) remain resolutely Brooklyn-set. Carmine, a vainglorious tough guy, is causing Mike and Bobby, the sweet, stay-at-home member of the gang who wants to be a postman, quite a bit of concern because of Carmine's overt courting of mob types - especially Gambino neighborhood captain, Caesar Manganaro (Alec Baldwin).

As the mob wars of the mid-80s escalate amid the ascension of don John Giotti, so do the tensions between the friends. Bobby finally pops the question to his long-time fiancé, while Carmine grows increasingly close to his mafia acquaintances. And Mike, tasting success at Columbia (with the aid of some judicious cheating), gets accepted to law school and finds love with a preppy co-ed, Ellen (Mena Suvari). Mike, who studiously avoids the seductive charms of the mafia goons, suddenly becomes beholden to Caesar when Mike flattens psychotic mob cowboy Gino (Christian Maelen). Caesar orchestrates a sit-down and clears matters, but Gino won't forget, and soon Mike, Carmine and Bobby are tragically drawn into a murderous, bloody finale they didn't anticipate.

Not being able to make up its mind whether or not it's a mob film or a coming of age, male bonding film, Brooklyn Rules winds up serving neither genre adequately, coming off like a thoroughly routine made-for-cable cross between Goodfellas and Stand By Me. Which is surprising, because Brooklyn Rules is written by regular The Sopranos writer, Terence Winter. Certainly, one would at least expect the mob subplot of Brooklyn Rules to have a modicum of verisimilitude, but these scenes play like bits of better mafia films that were left on the cutting room floor. The mob scenes lack not only a visceral, dangerous quality (even Baldwin's cutting off a Vietnam Vet's ear with a meat slicer - he must have relished that - is sub-par Casino), they're so randomly sampled and dropped into the picture that oftentimes you forget it actually is a mafia flick.

As for the coming-of-age angle, it's difficult to get that across when you can't make the locale come alive, when you can't make the audience believe the actors are really life-long friends, and when you can't rise above the most generic cliches in expressing fraternal bonding. Even though it was shot on location, Brooklyn Rules never feels authentic, with a cramped, interiors-dominate shooting scheme that shortchanges a potential source of place and tone. Whether due to a short shooting schedule or just miscasting, the three young leads never worked up an on-screen chemistry that convinced me that their characters shared an unshakeable bond. With this type of film, on-screen chemistry is everything, and Caan, Prinze, Jr., and Ferrara just don't click. As for the substandard, all-too-familiar scenes of male bonding in Brooklyn Rules, can we please retire (or at least bring a modicum of originality to) the supposedly adorable scenes of young men scoring with chicks, laughing about scoring with chicks, and comparing chicks' performances in bed? As for the early, aborted Catholic guilt/non-guilt scenes (the boys all attend Catholic school) that supposedly cement the tragic overtones of Brooklyn Rules' outcome, they again play as slavishly imitative of Scorsese.

Baldwin, who used to be an actor of genuine power (I really thought, after seeing films like Miami Blues and Glengarry Glen Ross, that his career would have been more important by now), falls back on easy winks and cliched "meaningful" glances to give a superficial, not-at-all "scary" mob captain performance. We never really believe he's in the mob; by now, Baldwin has attained the air of an underachieving actor who's remembered for how good he use to be (even his current 30 Rock stint plays up this real-life angle for comic effect - he's funny in it because we understand he's slumming). Caan, whom I actually remember quite fondly from a universally despised wrestling comedy called Ready to Rumble, is almost creepily similar to his famous father James, right down to that actor's patented 2x4-board-for-shoulders swagger. He probably does the best job in Brooklyn Rules; it's a shame he wasn't given more to do here. Ferrara, from TV's Entourage, enacts a role we've seen numerous times before. As for Prinze, Jr., I actually didn't realize he was in the movie when I first started it up. His voiceover narration, I thought, was fairly well executed. But once he showed up in the movie, it was simply a case of miscasting. Prinze, Jr. gives a modest, unassuming performance, but that's precisely the problem: it's so obvious he wants to be taken seriously, he drains all life out of the role by being much too careful and restrained. Suvari, who caused such a stir in American Beauty, is essentially invisible here; her non-existent role could have been essayed by any number of anonymous starlets.

The DVD:

The Video:
The anamorphically enhanced, 1.85:1 widescreen video image for Brooklyn Rules looks quite good, with the predominant blacks holding well, and the picture generally sharp.

The Audio:
You have a choice of listening to a Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo, or 5.1 Surround Sound mix for Brooklyn Rules - obviously go with the 5.1 here. It has some nice moments during the faux-Scorsese soundtrack, featuring Billy Idol and (hilariously) Culture Club. Spanish subtitles are available, and close-captioning is offered.

The Extras:
There's a full commentary track by screenwriter Winter and director Corrente, which I actually found more entertaining than the feature film; they're pretty funny in their recounting true aspects of the screenplay. There are also some small snippets from Baldwin, Caan, Prinze, Jr., Suvari, and Ferrara (totaling about 6 minutes), discussing the film. The original theatrical trailer is also included.

Final Thoughts:
Definitely from the minor leagues, the coming-of-age/mafia male bonding flick Brooklyn Rules doesn't have the grit to compete with ballsier mob films, nor the genuine heart and chemistry that's needed to properly get across this fictionalized remembrance from the screenwriter. Rent Brooklyn Rules if you want to keep your mob film cred up-to-date, but if you can take mafia films or leave them, definitely leave Brooklyn Rules alone.