Not worth a 'Deuce'

Deuces Wild - R\nStarring: Stephen Dorff, Fairuza Balk\nDirected by: Scott Kalvert\nShowing: Showplace East 11\nThere have already been a few 1950s gangster films that pit two rival gangs against each other in a rumble for turf. "West Side Story" had the Jets versus the Sharks, "The Outsiders" had the Greasers versus the Socs, and now "Deuces Wild" has the Deuces against the Vipers. These are where the similarities end. "West Side Story" had great songs and won an Oscar, and "The Outsiders" had a good story and an amazing cast. The only things "Deuces Wild" has are mediocre fights, lame motives and annoying Brooklyn accents.\nLeon (Stephen Dorff) has started a gang to make sure no drugs are sold on his block because his rival, Marco (Norman Reedus), once sold his younger brother heroin that killed the teen. So it's obvious that Leon hates Marco. Marco in turn dislikes Leon because he was sent to jail due to the supposed tattling from the older brother. So why don't the two just settle their differences man to man? There is no need to get close to thirty impressionable teens to lend their fists, and their lives, for this cause. But Leon says fight, and they risk their lives fighting.\nOne reason why the two top gang members do not just fight each other is because mobster Frittzy (Matt Dillon) won't let the killing happen for the sake of the street. But he doesn't voice any complaints over the huge gang rumbles, the ruining of family-run pizza parlors and the mugging of elderly women. Dillon probably just wanted to relive his "Outsiders" days by playing a similar part, but forgot to read the script, if there was one to begin with.\nThe discontinuity in the film just screams at the audience, "We're also confused." This downfall is made obvious with the romance angle between Bobby (Brad Renfro) and Annie (Fairuza Balk), the younger brother and sister of two of the top gangsters. They can't date because they're not allowed, but then the next scene the two are dating and their brothers don't care. Then in the following scene they're not dating because their brothers do care after all. Back and forth it continues in a discontinuous way. \nBalk surely breaks new ground with her multi-personality acting skills by proving she has only the skill to annoy. She cries and cries because she needs to leave Brooklyn, but in all reality, she is the only innocent one in the film. She gets yelled at a lot, but the other characters get stabbed, raped and have their families torn apart and they don't whine like poor little Annie. The tears might have been real though -- that is, she might have been crying because she was in this film. I know I cried just watching it.\n

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