Movies

As a longtime writer on The Sopranos, Terence Winter has steered clear of most of the hoary organized-crime clichés. Instead, he's poured them all into director Michael Corrente's anemic urban drama (shot in 2004) about a trio of best friends growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn in the pre-gentrified '80s. The always-engaging Scott Caan stars as the preening wise-guy wannabe; Entourage's Jerry Ferrara is the good-hearted mama's boy; and Freddie Prinze Jr. does a tortured Sylvester Stallone impersonation as the kid from the wrong side of the tracks (or at least Prospect Park) trying to reinvent himself as Joe College. The characters have names like Carmine and Bobby and say things like, "It's good to remember who your friends are" while "Sympathy for the Devil" blares on the soundtrack— presumably because "Gimme Shelter" was already in use over at The Departed.