This was a movie that could have been so much more than what it ended up being. A promising story with decent actors let down by poor timing and a script that needed a fair bit of tightening up. All three stories in this feature take place on Staten Island, hence the title. In a style pretty much pioneered in today’s popular culture by Quentin Tarantino, all three stories tie into each other, with the final tale doing the reveal and showing why the actions in the first two tales were undertaken.

What we have are stories featuring the mob, a septic tank cleaner and a deaf mute deli worker. The tale begins from the mob angle and works its way to its conclusion.

I found that so much more could have been done with this movie, which by the way was enjoyable but not so that I could highly rate it. I just found it to drag on and the way the movie was shot was pretty ordinary, feeling like a home move at the best of times. The performance of Vincent D’Onofrio was pretty lacklustre and felt phoned in. Ethan Hawke always inspires me but once again in some of the key scenes he seemed a bit unhinged and unconvincing. I just never felt dragged enough into the tale by these guys that I could score the movie higher.

The strongest actor in this story was Seymour Cassel who played the part of the deaf mute deli worker Jasper Sabiano. His facial expressions brought to life his role and I couldn’t look away when he was on screen. This part of the tale was a delight to watch, however not enough to pick up the pieces for the rest of the feature in my opinion.

I’m not sure whether to recommend this or not. The story could have been great, but wasn’t. The actors were capable of delivering solid performances but didn’t. If you want to see what could potentially have been a good story then sure rent this bad boy. Don’t buy it.

Tory Favro