Film Review – Lansky

Filmmakers love gangster stories, and tales about Meyer Lansky have been told many times before. There’s the usual tough guy stance, with orders and intimidation offered with equal restraint, reinforcing Lansky’s power as organized crime took hold of gambling operations in the 1940s and ‘50s. There’s violence, women, and money, and writer/director Eytan Rockaway isn’t about to ignore the cinematic possibilities of these vices, with his “Lansky” yet another examination of the criminal life in motion. What’s new here is time with a different character, with Rockaway creating a dual examination of strained men and their costly mistakes. Expectations for a Meyer Lansky bio-pic are not met with the feature, which only cherry picks a few areas of underworld unrest. The rest of the effort is a mild drama about the hunt for missing money and the stress of personal responsibility, and it’s not a particularly gripping take on a complex man. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com