The Black Donnellys - DVD

The Black Donnellys - The Complete Series

Amazon Price: $16.99 List Price: $19.98 By: Universal - Model: MCAD61101328D Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $13.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 95 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

awsome 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I think this was one of the best purchase's I have done i sure wish they would of made more of the season.

Great Stuff! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is definitely worth watching. On a par with the Sopranos,except the brothers are IRISH and fighting with the Italians. Then fighting with other Irish. It only gets better and better toward the last show. You are drawn into the family and forget that this is a show and they are actors. Like other reviewers I wish there were more seasons. Order the DVD series if you missed it when it was on tv.

A Blue Collar Version of THE GODFATHER 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

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Aficionados of gangster movies will want to take a look at this limited-run television series.

THE BLACK DONNELLYS (13 episodes/3-discs), from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, didn't make it as a television series, which is a shame because it's an excellent show with a compelling story, realistic dialogue, some good action and fascinating characters.

Created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, the series, which is part black comedy, plays somewhat like a blue collar version of THE GODFATHER.

The Donnellys are four Irish-American brothers, living in New York City. Jonathan Tucker, like Michael Corleone, aspires to a better life away from organized crime, but when one brother (Billy Lush), a gambling addict who never wins a bet, has to pay his bookie a large debt or have his legs broken, another hot-headed brother (Tom Guiry), the Sonny Corleone of this saga, kidnaps the bookie, who just happens to be the nephew of the local Italian Mob boss.

After a pair of Italian hoods beat up the youngest Donnelly (Michael Stahl-David), Guiry shoots the bookie, then in order to save his brother from being killed by the Italians, Tucker and Lush take a meeting in which they assassinate leaders of both the Italian and the Irish mobs.

Now, in order to keep the Italians and the Irish from coming after them, Tucker and his brothers must feign innocence and pretend to work with both factions. The problem is that Guiry is a wild card who continually does things to infuriate one side or the other, like stealing the Italians' bookmaking business or killing an Irish loan shark.

Kate Mulgrew plays the matriarch of the family, ruling her boys with an iron hand, Olivia Wilde is the local girl who loves Tucker and knows his dark secrets and Peter Greene is the frightening new axe-carrying leader of the Irish Mob.

Unlike some series that end too early, THE BLACK DONNELLYS comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Editorial Review:

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/06/2009 Rating: Nr