★★★★☆

The Crew is one of the funnier made for television gangster movies I have seen. The premise is hilarious. A bunch of gangsters end up in a run down retirement home because it is all they can afford. Ironically one of them is still keeping and wearing a actual Rolex watch he took off some other gangster he killed. Even more hilarious, one of their number sends Christmas cards to all the other retired gangsters he used to know. Oh no, you can’t understand without watching the movie, but the Rolex and the Christmas list are the groundwork for some of the more hilarious moments.

Storyline

Well, as luck would have it some big developer decides to kick everyone out of the run down retirement home and “The Crew” decides it is time to come out of retirement for one last job. Ah, but it is never “one last job.” The obligatory bungling happens and the lead detective on the investigation (Jennifer Tilly) just happens to be the estranged daughter of one of the gangsters. Estranged as in he never really knew her and she never knew about him.

If you can envision an old gangster in a wheel chair showing up with a shotgun to take part in one last job then you totally understand the level of humor they went for. Thankfully The Crew grabbed it with both hands and ran.

This movie came near the end of Burt Reynolds‘ “big draw” days as an actor. The 1994 divorce from Loni Anderson had turned ugly in the press tarnishing someone who was actually loved by many. His reputation suffered even more when the public learned he didn’t pay the last of the divorce settlement off until 2014. Having said all of that, Burt still had a wee bit of his old magic in this movie. It is well worth a watch, even today.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.