by Home Box Office (HBO)
| Average Rating: |
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| Sales Rank: | 8710 (lower is better) |
| Price Used: | $3.00 |
| Shipping: | Free Shipping on most orders over $25* |
| Availability: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| Director: | Rob Cohen |
| Release Date: | 1998-12-22 |
| Label: | Home Box Office (HBO) |
| UPC: | 026359155123 |
| Binding: | DVD |
| Published By: | Home Box Office (HBO) |
| ASIN: | 630521056X |
| Category: | DVD |
Actors and Actresses
Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions
Description
They had ' 'the world on a string' '. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, known as ' 'The Rat Pack' ' set the style and the pace for 1950's America as the nation roller coastered its way towards the swinging '60s. But can the high life last forever? If Frank and the boys have their way by electing John F. Kennedy, the party has only just begun.
Amazon.com essential video
Hey, chicky baby--it's a cuckoo thing, ya dig? You, too, will find yourself speaking Rat Pack lingo after watching this made-for-HBO biopic about that brief and shining moment when Camelot met Hoboken-on-the-Pacific. The film does a good job of capturing the heady, anything-goes feel of the late-1950s, early-1960s era when Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and their running buddies ruled Hollywood, Las Vegas, and, it seemed, the world. The story centers on Sinatra's relationship with John F. Kennedy (William F. Petersen) before and after he was elected president. It's not particularly flattering to either man, as Sinatra pimps Kennedy into a relationship with Judith Campbell, at the same time she was the favorite consort of mob boss Sam Giancana. Ray Liotta is a forceful Sinatra (though it's not much of an impression); Joe Mantegna has the look and the sound of the surprisingly sober Dean Martin; and Don Cheadle does a great job as the racially conflicted Sammy Davis Jr. Not great cinema but it's never less than engrossing. --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
This Movie Swings (in spite of itself) - Reviewed on 2007-10-01
1 customer found this review helpful.
This movie has several things about it that almost kill it.
I love the cast but...how do you have someone play Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin? Ray Liotta and Joe Mantegna are great actors but they're playing the Coolest King Giants of Vegas, Baby. Liotta still has that lethal edge from GOODFELLAS that he gives Sinatra a sinister presence he may or may not have had (temper, yes, but Liotta probably does violence a lot better than Frank could, sorry). And as much as I love Joe Mantegna, he fluctuates the amount of dashing Dino charm he can channel in his scenes.
Then there's the singing. Did one guy do all the singing? The Frank and Dean songs all kind of sound like one guy. I know the Sinatra family kept the filmmakers from using any original recordings but couldn't they have found any of the Vegas Rat Pack impersonators to crack at the songs?
(I saw an interview with the late Phil Hartman and he talked about how the Sinatra daughters threatened to withhold the rights to Frank for a Nestea commercial if they used Hartman to dub the voice, so I know they can be very sensitive about that kind of thing. The girls were offended at Hartman's take on Frank but I thought he was hilarious).
In spite of all this, I really enjoyed THE RAT PACK. Don Cheadle does an outstanding job as Sammy Davis Jr. while the rest of the cast is great. The script is fast-moving and covers a lot of ground, focusing on Frank's relationship with JFK but including Vegas shows, Hollywood deals, Mafia meetings, and FBI wiretaps. I could put the film in right now and watch it again--and I've seen it a half-dozen times.
The first time I saw it was one week after ABC aired a documentary about JFK and I was stunned that the doc backed up EVERYTHING in this movie. Not a lot of artistic license was played with the facts. None was needed.
In the mid-90s, some prelimenary announcements were made that Martin Scorsese was going to shoot a film version of Nick Tosches' great book about Dean Martin, DINO: LIVING HIGH IN THE DIRTY BUSINESS OF DREAMS. It was also announced that Tom Hanks would play Dino. A strange bit of casting but Hanks actually played Dean on a "Saturday Night Live" sketch and made it work (I thought so anyway). I'd also read that Hanks wanted to play the part so badly that he actually hosted a Christmas party completely in character as Dean. Dream casting notices appeared in the press that John Travolta would play Frank and Jim Carrey would be Jerry Lewis (Carrey's take on Jerry Lewis on "On Living Color" are classic).
And then nothing.
With all of those big names involved, the movie would cost more than TITANIC. As the DINO project fell apart, HBO shot and aired THE RAT PACK.
It's too bad. DINO sounded like an incredible movie.
Oh, well, at least we got something. And THE RAT PACK is a good movie.
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Book Subjects
- Adult Situations
- Atmospheric
- Biography [feature]
- Bittersweet
- Color
- Documentary
- Drama
- English
- Feature
- Feature Film-drama
- High Production Values
- Made for Cable
- Made for TV
- Movie
- Musician's Life
- Poignant
- Showbiz Drama
- Slick
- TV Shows / TV Movie
- Talky
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