Forget About It DVD Review

Forget About It is the story of an east coast gangster, Angelo Nitti, from Hoboken, New Jersey. After a lifetime of crime, he decides it is time to leave the mob for a more normal life. Nitti deliberately allows himself to be caught after a bank robbery and quickly joins the witness protection program. This results in being shipped off to a sleepy retirement community in Phoenix, Arizona, by a pair of overly amorous FBI agents. Nitti, unhappy with his new digs, finds it difficult to stay inconspicuous, as he begins to draw attention from his new neighbors, played by Robert Loggia, Burt Reynolds and Charles Durning. Things really heat up when the FBI agents that Nitti trusted to protect him give his whereabouts to his former employer for a million dollar bounty. To make matters worse, his busy body neighbors discover the 4 million dollars in cash that he embezzled from his former employer. Now Nitti needs to get his money back and get out of town without getting killed by either the good guys or the bad guys!

It is hard to review the film’s plot because it is so muddied by the poor quality of filmmaking. Traditional filmmaking and conventions like eye lines and inner cutting be damned with this film. This film brings the rich and powerful tradition of independent filmmaking to its knees. The image quality is extremely poor. It looks like it was shot on a home video camera. The only thing worse is the audio. Half of the movie is re-recorded, and no attention was given for the design or mix. It has a tremendous cast with Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds, Richard Grieco and Robert Loggia as its supporting cast, but loses any talent and pull that these actors bring to the table due to the complete lack care in its filming. It is heart breaking to see some of the Hollywood’s biggest names appear in such a truly bad film.

Beyond its technical problems, the film is simply just a let down. It seems as if the filmmakers saw and tried to emulate films like My Blue Heaven and Johnny Dangerously, but forgot that one of the key elements in these films is that they have a strong lead actor. Forget About It does not. Michael Paloma, who miraculously plays two characters in the film, comes across more as an overcompensating bully than a true wise guy.

Forget About It is desperately grasping at straws for success. You know how sometimes as a part of a film’s advertising campaign they will tell you the film is from the producer of some successful movie? Well, sometimes they have to do that to entice someone to watch it. Forget About It is using this method, citing that the film is from the producer of As Good As It Gets and Jerry Maguire. Well, with a little research, it becomes obvious that the filmmakers are grasping at straws here. The “producer” is one of ten people listed as having produced both films; similarly, he is not the lead producer even on this film!

The film is presented in widescreen and does have a 5.1 surround sound track. The special features menu included on the DVD consists of the trailer to the film, but also lists Spanish subtitles as a feature, rather than a common courtesy.