The Crew (2000): Dir: Michael Dinner / Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya, Seymour Cassel, Carrie-Anne Moss: Here is a comedy that features a concept that is actually funny. Title suggests small factors prevailing over bigger ones. It opens in New Jersey 1968 and chronicles four mafia guys now living in a care home. Richard Dreyfuss regrets leaving his family and wishes to locate his daughter. Burt Reynolds cannot hold a job. Dan Hedaya works at a morgue. Seymour Cassel hardly speaks accepts during sex. They are blackmailed into kidnapping but accidentally blow up the home of a drug dealer. This is perhaps the funniest and best set up comic sequence in the film, and director Michael Dinner capitalizes upon it with great payoff. Acting by the veteran cast is a great combination. Dreyfuss will discover that his daughter is indeed the police woman investigating their crimes. Reynolds cannot make a career out of the fast food industry. Hedaya makes smiles on the corpses at the morgue. And Cassel has great sex. Carrie-Anne Moss is effective as Dreyfuss's daughter who is a police officer and now dealing with who her father became. What works against it is the contrived ending that allows the criminal so-called good guys to get off the hook. It has a great theme regarding time and age and a small crew that got duped into making a terrible move. Score: 7 / 10

So much promise, yet so little achievement was the enduring impression left on me after watching this comedy. A group of ageing ex-con artists conjure an imaginative, yet flawed plot to save their Miami retirement home from soaring rents by using the body of a dead neighbour to scare away potential residents. When the dead man's son (Sandoval) emerges to take vengeance on those responsible for his death, they use their collective criminal experience to dodge the attempted retributions.

Dreyfuss, Reynolds, Cassel and Hedaya probably weren't quite old enough to convince me that they were geriatrics, relying on props to affect the age (hearing aids etc) although Reynolds did a great impression of someone who'd lost his marbles. His near-death epiphanies lead to several hair-brained schemes while Dreyfuss' main angle is assisting the local police investigating the death, the female detective (Moss) unaware the she is his daughter. She mistakes his kindly advances as those of a dirty old man, while Dreyfuss is trying to work out how to confess to the ruse, and still reconcile with the daughter neither knew existed. Moss is stunning and it's almost inconceivable that the Pivster (Piven) is both her detective partner and boyfriend from whom she's estranged. Must be low self esteem...

Slapstick, sentimental comedy has its moments and an appealing cast but never quite hit the notes I was expecting, all things considered. Easy, lightweight viewing.

I was positively intrigued to see such a wide divergence of opinion on this flick; I can't recall ever seeing such a split opinion in this space. Therefore I will offer the moderate observation that, while being far from the cleverest comedy I've seen, the movie isn't all that bad. The script is not a particularly witty effort, but the tangled web that these 4 retired hoods spin for themselves becomes progressively more intriguing. (I would note that the arson technique portrayed must be taken with about a pound of salt) The sentimental sub-plot about the missing daughter is unnecessary and dilutes the comedy (though, mercifully it's not played up very big). Altogether, not a cause for raves, but not as bad as some here say.