Vincent Pastore Movies

When a deal in Kiev goes bad for American mobsters Gino (Danny Nucci) and Settimo (Dan Hedaya), they make their way to Glasgow to seek shelter from the fallout in the home of cousin Bobby (Gerald Lepkowski). A kindly stamp collector who runs a small café, Bobby believes Gino and Settimo to be a pair of PR consultants, although when his grateful guests attempt to repay his hospitality by strong-arming a persistent bill collector, he begins to have his doubts regarding their profession. When the Russian mafia contracts a pair of Liverpool heavies to find the fleeing mobsters, Bobby finds his quiet life falling apart at the seams. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with the oft-filmed Fannie Hurst yarn Back Street, Backstreet Dreams is a contemporary drama of Humanity vs. the Streets. Jason O'Malley plays a New York hoodlum who doesn't trust his wife Sherilyn Fenn as far as he can throw her (and for good reason). The only person O'Malley truly cares for is his autistic son Shane, played by twin children Joseph and John Viezzi. Brooke Shields (who's better than you might think) enters the scene as a PhD candidate who hopes to get through to Shane. Now it is the unfaithful Fenn's turn to seethe with jealousy as Shields applies her "force holding" theory to Shane, she and O'Malley draw closer together. O'Malley is so taken by Shields' compassion that he severs his mob ties--but Big Boss Burt Young won't let him off so easy, and uses Shane as a "bargaining chip." Backstreet Dreams appears at times to be three films jumbled together; every time a story element starts rolling, it is exiled to the back burner in favor of another gratuitous subplot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carlito's Way is a tale of a former hood trying to escape his former life. Al Pacino is Carlito Brigante, a high-level Puerto Rican drug dealer sprung from a three-decade jail sentence after only five years, thanks to a technicality and his sleazy, cocaine-addled lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn). Carlito renounces his previous ways and takes a job as the manager of a club that Kleinfeld has invested in, planning to save enough money so that he can eventually move to the Caribbean. But no sooner is Carlito back on the streets of New York than his old life claws at him in the form of both old partners (Luis Guzman) and vicious up-and-comers (John Leguizamo). Nevertheless, Carlito stays clean and even restarts his relationship with a dancer named Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), until he is finally led astray by Kleinfeld, who manipulates Carlito into participating in the murder of a Mafia don from whom Kleinfeld has stolen a million dollars. At that point, the race is on to see whether Carlito and Gail can escape his world for good. The film is based on two novels about Carlito written by New York State judge Edwin Torres. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

This gang warfare drama is from director Scott Kalvert, whose previous film was the controversial and violent The Basketball Diaries (1995). In the sweltering summer of 1958, Leon (Stephen Dorff) and Bobby (Brad Renfro) are leaders of the Brooklyn street gang known as the Deuces. When their brother Alley Boy died from an overdose, the two toughs vowed to keep narcotics out of their turf, but now they're being muscled by a new and more powerful gang called the Vipers, fueled by drug money and led by mobster Fritzy Zennetti (Matt Dillon). As a vicious gang war heats up that will determine Brooklyn's future, a romance develops between Bobby and Annie (Fairuza Balk), the leader of a girl gang. Deuces Wild co-stars Frankie Muniz, Balthazar Getty, Max Perlich, Drea de Matteo, Deborah Harry, Vincent Pastore, Joshua Leonard, James Franco, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Karl Williams, 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

Two estranged brothers discover that family secrets can have a high value on the wrong side of the law in this crime drama. Jack McCallister (Seymour Cassel) is an aging career criminal whose luck is about to give out; Jack and his henchmen are ambushed by police in the midst of a major robbery, which leaves Jack severely injured and his accomplices dead. Jack manages to hide the $500,000 from the robbery before he makes his way to his death bed, where he speaks with his two sons, George (Treat Williams) and Michael (Paul Schulze). George has followed Jack's example as a thief, though his violent recklessness suggests that his career will not be as long as his father's, while Michael makes ends meet as a con man, selling burial plots that don't exist to the elderly and gullible. George and Michael have never gotten along and don't trust each other, but before Jack dies, he gives each of his sons an important clue as to where his final windfall is hidden. If they are to find the money, George and Michael will have to put aside their differences and help each other, but of course they're not the only ones in town looking for the missing half-million. Handgun was the first theatrical feature for television director Whitney Ransick and also features Michael Rappaport, Frank Vincent, and Michael Imperioli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Loosely based on a true story, this uneven romantic comedy depicts the unexpected way in which a winning lottery ticket unites a pair of strangers. Waitress Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) first meets police officer Charlie (Nicolas Cage) when he eats in her restaurant. Realizing that he doesn't have enough money to give her a tip, Charlie promises Yvonne to split any winnings from the lottery ticket he just bought. The skeptical Yvonne dismisses Charlie as just another cheapskate until he wins four million dollars and, much to Yvonne's surprise, decides to honor the agreement. His action becomes front page news and wins public acclaim, but it doesn't go over nearly so well with Charlie's wife Muriel (Rosie Perez), who has her own plans for the money. Muriel's shallow, greedy behavior disgusts Charlie, who finds himself spending more and more time with Yvonne, developing a friendship that threatens to blossom into something more. Jane Anderson's screenplay stresses the relationship between Charlie and Yvonne's characters over the situation's comic potential; this earnest tone will please romance fans but may disappoint viewers expecting the farcical comedy of writer/director Andrew Bergman's and Cage's previous effort, Honeymoon in Vegas. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

T.R. Knight, Danny Aiello, Vincent Pastore, and Gilbert Gottfried star in writer/director John DeBellis' bittersweet romantic comedy about a dying father who implores one of his sons to have a baby boy and carry on the family name. Pop (Aiello) is dying, but before he punches out he wants to make sure that his legacy will live on. In order to insure that this happens, he begs his sons Tom ($Knight) and Jeff (also Knight) to marry a woman and father a son. While Tom is more than up to the task, tragedy strikes when he dies trying. Now it's all up to Jeff, but how does a seminary student who's planning on becoming a priest maintain his vow of celibacy and fulfill his father's dying wish at the same time? When Pop confronts Jeff with a question that shakes the loyal son to the very core, he abandons the seminary in order to follow through on his dear old dad's final request. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A "deadbeat dad" is found murdered in a hotel room. The suspects include the victim's embittered father-in-law Max Schaffer (Val Avery) and two women in the dead man's life. Ultimately the prosecution of the case boils down to jury sympathy for a long-suffering and arguably justified perpetrator -- not to mention a terminal leukemia patient. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The body of an unidentified teenaged girl is found floating in the river. The investigation conducted by Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) leads to several illegal sweatshops operating in New York, and an insidious racket which makes virtual slaves out of immigrant teens. In order to bring the villains to justice, Assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) exhumes a century-old case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actor/filmmaker Robert Capelli Jr., responsible for the 1999 bikini-infested film The Rules (For Men), teams up with film editor Jeffery Wolf to direct the so-called comedy Mail Order Bride. Danny Aiello stars in this film which tries to find humor in a story about the Russian and Italian Mafia involved in the business of human smuggling. Also starring Frank Gorshin (from the original Batman) and Vincent Pastore (from The Sopranos). Mail Order Bride premiered at the 2003 American Film Market. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide