American Bred (2016) Reviews

• Mediocre Crime Family Drama

  larrys32018-04-18

  This grade B-movie is not the worst crime family drama I've seen but it's not a particularly good one either. It's filled with cliched dialogue and a number of non-believable plot elements. Some of the acting is solid especially from Michael Lerner, as the mob boss, Eva Tamargo as his wife, and Victoria Pavalka , as a waitress at their Italian restaurant who gets caught in the middle of mob business. There are some surprises along the way, a little humor ,and strangely some heavy moralizing on occasion. To note, there were no English subtitles on the DVD copy I obtained from Redbox, so I had to use the closed caption option on my remote. Also, when the conversations were in Italian, there were subtitles but they were quite small. All in all, don't expect a great deal from this film which has its occasional moments. Although as you might expect, one thing you can count on is plenty of violence and explicit language throughout.

• "La Famiglia": The Amazingly Incompetent Adamo Crime Family

  lavatch2018-03-04

  "American Bred" is a poor man's "Godfather" film with one of the most incompetent and dysfunctional crime families imaginable. Indeed, everyone from FBI and the police agents, to guilt-ridden Adamo family members, to "rats" who infiltrate the family yet come up empty with incriminating evidence, cannot do anything right in their jobs. The women characters are especially interesting with Catalina, the matriarch, holding the key to the family's "secrets." The guilt is most apparent in Catalina's multiple visits to the church confessional booth to cleanse her soul of the act she has kept concealed from her husband at a time when he was in prison. The major question is: Will Catalina's guilt bring about reform in her family, or will she bring down the family "business"? Catalina's relationship to a young female immigrant named Letizia ("Leti") reveals how the two women seemingly share compassion in their attempt to save the life of a man about to be killed by the Adamo men. It was disappointing that Leti dropped out of the film towards the end with no indication about what would be her fate. Even her bankroll was taken away from her by the cruel son Angelo. This was one of many loose ends in the film's narrative. The film offered an intriguing contrast in the values within the Adamo clan. On the one hand, there is a ruthlessness in the attempt to purge the family of a perceived snitch named Christiano (or "Tio"). With ice-water running in his veins, the godfather stares at the bloodied Tio and orders his minions, "Kill him." At the same time, there is an altruism in the apparent kindness of having brought the orphan Tio into the family in the first place. It would be interesting to screen this film and have a discussion about the current controversy of immigration. One of the keys to unlocking the mystery of "la famiglia" Adamo is a brief sequence in which the local priest and father confessor to Catalina arrives at the family home with a large bundle of cash. What on earth is going on with a pious member of the Detroit community giving church monies to his local godfather? There is an interesting plot twist at the end that contributed to making this grade "B" direct-to-consumer video worth a look.