Joseph D'Onofrio Movies

William DeMeo is scriptwriter, star, and co-director for the crime drama Wannabes. Hotheated older brother Angelo (DeMeo) and more-thoughtful younger brother Paulie (Conor Dubin) are both fired from their jobs as waiters at an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. They join up with two of their neighborhood friends, Pete (Daniel Margotta) and Dom (John Palumbo) to start up a bookie business with a 20,000-dollar loan. The group has a rocky start, but soon acquires some help from a partner in Coney Island and expands into more complicated illegal activites. Local crime boss Santo Minieri (Joe Viterelli) develops an interest in the new business and soon takes Angelo up as his protégé. Santo's biological son, Vinny (Joesph D'Onofrio), is angered by his father's choice and seems headed for destruction. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Night and the City is a remake of the 1950 Richard Widmark vehicle of the same name. Major changes: As played by Robert DeNiro, the Widmark character, one Harry Fabian, is no longer merely a two-bit tout but instead a two-bit lawyer; and the film is set in New York, as opposed to the London setting of the original. While embroiled in a lawsuit involving a boxer, Fabian becomes fascinated in the world of championship prizefights. Always susceptible to get-rich-quick schemes, Fabian tries to organize his own big boxing event, but to do that he needs the help of hardnosed promoter Alan King--and to get to King, Fabian uses the promoter's father, former boxer Jack Warden, to act as front man. Fabian scurries around lying and double-dealing in order to sell percentages of the upcoming bout, while King warns Fabian of the consequences should anything unfortunate happen to the ailing Warden. Disaster plagues Fabian as his boxers fail to pass their physicals, and Warden dies while setting up the big event. Pursued by King and his creditors, the terrified Fabian is urged by girlfriend Jessica Lange to get of town. Instead, Fabian decides to face up to his failings for the first time in his life, and stands his ground for the final, fatal confrontation. Like the earlier Widmark film, the 1992 Night and the City is based on a novel by Gerald Kersh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a "stand-up guy" by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie's lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a "made guy," an actual member of the crime family. Soon he finds himself the target of both the feds and the mobsters, who feel that he has become a threat to their security with his reckless dealings. Goodfellas was rewarded with six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; Pesci would walk away with Best Supporting Actor for his work. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide