The Crew (2000 film)

Plot

Four retired mobsters Bobby (Richard Dreyfuss) - the straight man leader, Bats (Burt Reynolds) - a cantankerous man with a short fuse and a pacemaker, Mouth (Seymour Cassel) - a silent ladies man many years past his prime, and Brick (Dan Hedaya) - a nice but dimwitted man plan one last crime to save their apartment at a retirement home (the owners are forcing them out with a rent increase so that the apartments can be rented to young, affluent South Beach couples). The four steal a corpse from the mortuary to use as the "victim" in a staged murder scene. Unknown to them, the body was that of Luis Ventanna, the head of a Colombian drug smuggling ring. As a result of the "murder", many of the young renters leave and the four men are given cash and a rent discount by the complex to keep living there. Much of this money is spent on high living and women, which causes a young stripper, Ferris (Jennifer Tilly) to discover that the four men staged the murder - while spending time with the normally-silent "Mouth," he reveals that his mouth is loosened by intimacy with women.

To keep the woman quiet, the four agree to kill her stepmother (Lainie Kazan), but instead kidnap her and fake her death by setting fire to her mansion. In the process, they accidentally burn down the house of the drug-smuggler's son (Miguel Sandoval), who happened to live in a nearby mansion. Believing that someone is trying to usurp his power, the drug lord offers $100,000 to anyone who brings him the head of the man responsible. This results in a confrontation at the apartment, leading to the capture of a female police officer and her partner (Carrie-Anne Moss and Jeremy Piven), one of the wiseguys (Seymour Cassel), the young woman, and the stepmother. The other wiseguys manage to escape this conflict, and track down the men who kidnapped their friend.

They call in all of their still-living former associates from their active years and lay siege to the ship where the drug lord is holding his prisoners. They then turn the ship and the drug smugglers over to the police, along with a shipment of drugs. A truckload of Cuban cigars is taken by the men and used to make their apartment complex into "a retirement home for old wiseguys who are down on their luck."

A sub-plot of the movie involves Richard Dreyfuss' search for his long lost daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), whom he hasn't seen since he was in his 30s and she was a small child.

Cast

Reaction

The Crew received negative reviews upon release, and was mostly noted for its similarities to Space Cowboys, which also involved four retirees who return for one last job (in that case, to go back into space). The film holds a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 85 reviews. It was a box office flop, grossing only US$13 million off an estimated $38 million budget.