Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Jayden-Lee Thomson One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

SnoopyStyle It's the prohibition era in Chicago. Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk) with the help of the Sheriff takes over after assassinating Big Jim. Robbo (Frank Sinatra) was Big Jim's friend and refuses to go along. Will (Sammy Davis Jr.) is Robbo's right hand man in the north side. Pool hustler John (Dean Martin) is new in town and Allen A. Dale (Bing Crosby) is the director of an orphanage for boys. Gisborne starts a war with Robbo. Marian (Barbara Rush) is Big Jim's secret daughter and tries to hire Robbo to avenge his father's murder.This film is more notable for what happened behind the scenes. The music is old fashion Rat Pack. It's great for fans of their style but none of it is really catchy. There is little energy and considering the circumstances, it's perfectly understandable. The camera style is rather pedestrian and the whole movie lacks pace.

Spondonman I really liked this when I was a kid, but seeing it again after a couple of decades gap it looks a lot thinner than I thought it was. It's still enjoyable only the padding is painfully obvious as such.Story of light-hearted murdering sets of gangsters battling it out in Prohibition Chicago in a jovial and frivolous manner. Uncredited Edward G's brutal cartoony slaughter at the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the movie - humour, violence and a few brash songs. There are good production values but it's only worth watching for the few Ratpack setpieces: Sammy Davis and Bing Crosby had their individual moments, Dean Martin was given a rather dozy solo and Frank Sinatra shone through it all as usual. But the truly sublime bits are Style with Crosby, Martin and Sinatra – the title and lyrics say it all - it's a complete obfuscating joy to watch and hear because everyone has style and class; and My Kind Of Town, which is a perfect triumph. If you took those two sections out it would leave the film looking and sounding rather threadbare; you can't really have a reasonable film consisting mainly of padding. As dull as the pointless humourless demise of bigger-baddie Peter Falk was the climax and end of the film itself was rushed and bodged – lucky it was still quite funny though. So if you don't like dry black humour or music you're probably in the wrong joint!

vincentlynch-moonoi Those who don't like this film (and that's okay), don't really "get" the film (and that's okay, too). It's a spoof. It's all tongue in cheek. And it stars 4 tremendous stars -- Frank, Dean, Bing, and Sammy. No, it's not Shakespeare. Nor is it supposed to be. It's just supposed to be fun with some cool songs thrown in for good measure. Nothing more. Nothing less. And, if you don't like the stars, this wouldn't have been a movie for you to go see. But for the fans of those four big time operators, this film is a ball.Attention to detail sometimes makes a movie, and starting out a film about Prohibition Era gangsters with a cameo of Edward G. Robinson...well, that's paying attention to detail. The first musical number ("All for One and One for All") is a hoot as sung by that man with the velvet voice -- Peter Falk. Of course he's a lousy singer; that's the point. I don't even like Peter Falk, but he's perfect for his role in this film.Dean Martin's primary solo ("Any Man Who Loves His Mother") is hokey...and it's supposed to be...I'm not particularly enamored of it...but it does show off his mellow voice nicely. It's also interesting to watch Dean's subtle facial expressions in some of the scenes, and you'll notice that he is often focusing all his attention on Bing Crosby.Sammy Davis' primary number ("Bang Bang") shows off his vocal and tap dancing abilities very well, although Sammy got a bit short-changed in this film...and you'll note that he's the only main character without a love episode.But the best role of all -- though he doesn't appear until just about halfway through the film -- belongs to Bing Crosby...a "do-gooder" with some intentions that may be less than honorable. Crosby has 2 notable numbers, one with some kids and the other the lead in "Mister Booze". One can still see the old pro excelling even late in his life, and it's a pleasure.Of course, Frank Sinatra's big number here is "My Kind Of Town", one of his signature songs.Additional cast members do their jobs. I especially liked Robert Foulk as the original sheriff. But the cameo appearance of all time -- short lived though it was, was Edward G. Robinson -- a classic touch. You need to watch for little touches in the dialog that are quite clever. For example, the telephone number at one point is Garfield...", in homage to John Garfield. Lots of little thing like that.If there's one criticism I have is that the boys (Dean, Frank, Bing, and Sammy) didn't take enough care in lip-syncing the songs, and even some of the dialog. It's really quite noticeable and distracting. This is a good film. Not one of the great musicals of the 40s or 50s, but a rather pleasant romp with the Rat Pack. Have fun watching it.The Warner Brothers Blu-Ray disc I purchased was an excellent transfer.

Michael_Elliott Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The Rat Pack take on gangsters in the 1920's Chicago in this spoof of the genre, which is also mixed with the Robin Hood story. After the top gangster is killed at his birthday party, Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk) takes over the mob with the help of a corrupt cop but this doesn't sit well with Robbo (Frank Sinatra). Instead of joining up with the other mobs, Robbo decides to team up with some buddies (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby) and take the city over with charity work. This movie starts off very well but slowly runs out of gas and in the end it becomes a rather drag, which is a shame since the movie started off so well. I think the biggest problem is the running time, which just keeps the moving going and going when it should have probably ran only 90 or 100 minutes. The first half of the film is extremely fast, loose and fun and it offers up plenty of nice laughs including a hilarious cameo by Edward G. Robinson. Sinatra, rumored to have had mob connections, fits his role extremely well and delivers a fine performance of "My Kind of Town". Sammy Davis, Jr. is also very good in the film and gives one of the highlights in his performance of "Bang, Bang" and he also does a great impression of James Cagney. Martin is also very funny as is Crosby but Falk really steals the show as the rival gangster. For the most part the music is good, although I think the song "Mr. Booze" runs too long and really brings the film to a standstill. The history behind the making of this film is rather interesting since Kennedy was assassinated during production and Sinatra's own son was kidnapped and held for ransom, which also had the filmmakers cut a kidnapping scene from the film. There's a joke early in the film about the Lincoln assassination and I'm shocked this was left in the film after what happened to Kennedy. At any point, this is a fairly entertaining comedy that has a lot going for it but an editor really would have helped things.