Mob Town (2019)

Mob Town got savaged by critics when it released and I'm not really sure why, it is a low budget movie with some fairly cheesy dialogue but it's still a pretty solid little true story film.

I will admit there is one promotional poster for the movie that sucks which depicts David Arquette's character wearing a fedora and holding a tommy gun....something which he never does in the entire movie. In fact no one fires a Tommy Gun at all in the entire film.

Mob Town follows State Trooper Sgt. Ed Croswell played by David Arquette who has suspicions that a Mafia syndicate is planning on holding a large meeting to plan their next move in a small town during the late 1950s.

One of the strengths of the movie is the cast, David Arquette is very likeable as the lead and I was invested in seeing him piece together clues and evidence to convince his fellow officers that something is up. Robert Davi is good as the head mobster and Jennifer Esposito has a likeable chemistry with Arquette, I didn't mind their romance story at all. It didn't distract from the story and spending time with Croswell and developing his character isn't a bad thing.

Some of the mobsters are a bit corny though, they crack all the one liners you'd expect them to.

It's a bit of a slow burn movie, but thankfully the build up to the raid is very interesting and it is cool seeing Croswell put the pieces together and linking evidence. He notices that one member is buying a very large quantity of food for catering and another is booking every motel in town. These moments are great cause you really want to see Croswell catch these guys.

For a low budget affair, I thought the set dressing was very well done, it certainly gave a 1950s vibe and there was nothing that made me go "hang on! that doesn't belong there". From what info I could google, they got quite a few of the key facts correct. Some stuff may be wrong as this isn't a documentary, but it made for an interesting read when I was done watching.

A few critics took issue with the comedic moments, but these didn't bother me. A few of them did make me crack a smile.

The soundtrack was also really good, I highly enjoyed the ending epilogue music and even looked it up after the movie was over.

In Conclusion, Mob Town is a very entertaining little thriller. I don't know why it got savaged so bad. It may have some shortcomings, but overall I found it to be very entertaining and enjoyable