DVD: Brooklyn Rules

Imagine a Mean Streets rip off starring Freddie Prinze Jr – that pretty much sums up this routine tale of friendship in 1980s Brooklyn that comes “from the writer of The Sopranos.” A clichéd story set against a world of mob violence that only really becomes relevant at key plot points.

Prinze Jr plays a college kid torn between his roots and his aspirations. Scott Caan, on form in yet another hoodlum turn, and Entourage’s Turtle (Jerry Ferrera) play his childhood pals. It’s your typical drama about three very different young men who come to a turning point.

Harbouring water polo dreams, Michael (Prinze Jr) tells us in voiceover that he wants to leave Brooklyn behind, that he doesn’t have much of a conscience, and feels he’d be well-suited to be a lawyer. That he takes this path is an amusing footnote and little more.

There was the potential here to create a complex amoral character along the lines of Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking, but Prinze Jr is simply miscast. At the beginning Michael describes himself in such a way you expect him to have an edge, but nothing in Prinze Jr’s performance conveys any complexity. The fresh-faced 31-year-old is too bland to make the most of this role, however Caan is much more engaging as a vain badboy.

Decent looking, watchable but forgettable, Prinze pretty much defines the film. A throwaway star for a throwaway film. While he may be a poor man’s Paul Walker (that’s a cruel thing to say I know) he’s not terrible and this is a decent B-movie, although the similar 10th & Wolf was much better.

Costarring the not-too-choosy Mena Suvari (soon to be seen in the maligned Day of the Dead remake) as the love interest and Alec Baldwin as the obligatory menacing wiseguy, Brooklyn Rules is only worth a look if you’re a fan of the genre or among the Scooby Doo star’s fan club.      Richard Hawes

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If you have a hankering for some Freddie Prinze Jr action, grab a copy of Brooklyn Rules here.