Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

zetes James Gray, who would go on to direct The Yards, We Own the Night and Two Lovers, debuted with this dark and involving tale of a family of Russian Jews in New York City torn apart by crime. Tim Roth plays the oldest son of the family who has been banished from Brooklyn after a murder he committed. Now he returns after a long absence to commit another assigned assassination. Maximilian Schell is the father who has disowned him, Vanessa Redgrave the mother dying of brain cancer and Edward Furlong the teenage brother who is growing apart from his father and longing for a strong male role model. Roth isn't a good one, of course, but Furlong becomes intrigued by criminal life. It's a deeply felt film with well written situations and characters. I can't imagine why it has such a low rating on IMDb. It seems that people are unhappy that the film makes them unhappy, which is an attitude that always pisses me off. Tarantino's Pulp Fiction came out the same year, and made the life seem like a lot more fun, even if you sometimes get shot at, and, consequently, sometimes die (but only sometimes). Pulp Fiction is perhaps the more original film, but Little Odessa is a deeper film.

lastliberal Writer/director James Gray's (We Own the Night) first film was critically acclaimed for it's cinematography and for performances by Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell. It is not an action film, even though the main character is a hit-man. It is a drama about family and shame.Mr. Orange, Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Incredible Hulk) plays a son who has been disowned for bringing shame on the family by his behavior. He returns to Brighton Beach to do a job, and reunites with his family as his mother lays dying. He also reunited with Moira Kelly, much to the delight of movie viewers.About the only one happy to see him was his younger brother Rueban, played by Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Pecker). Well, mom was happy, but moms are always happy no matter how bad their children are - trust me on that.Violence was at a minimum for a Russian Mafia/hit-man picture, and the focus was on the family. Maximilian Schell was excellent as the father that made piece just for a moment to allow Redgrave to see her son.Gray's first film has nuance and subtlety not often seen in a film featuring the mafia.

Rick Blaine It's the camera-work which first impresses in this one. The shots are so well taken.Roth is excellent, bordering on superb, and should win the Hugh Laurie Award for the best job done portraying (and sounding convincingly like) a 'north a-merican' by a Brit.Are talents like Schell and Redgrave wasted? Hardly. More: their Russian is very good - something you wouldn't expect from a flick like this. Sometimes the language is almost overly simplistic but the accents are very good.This is a taut thriller - a scary one - and there are scenes which may have you gasping because they're so stark. As in 'Casino was a Bugs Bunny movie'. Something like that. Is this good? That's another matter. A lot of this is lent by Roth's performance - he's a cold blooded killer and he plays it with more the poker face than Hopkins in Remains of the Day.Denouement? Watch for it. When the movie's over you might miss the fact it's over. Is this a highly recommendable flick? Hard to say. Some excellent work here. But will you enjoy it? Benefit by it?That's a much more difficult question.PS. Hey IMDb! Stop correcting our spelling and giving us no chance to correct your incorrect corrections. Suggesting corrections is one thing; forcing them upon us is quite another.

George Parker In "Little Odessa" (So dubbed after the Russian enclave of the same name in Brooklyn), Roth plays a hit man who returns to the neighborhood of his youth only to find that family matters are not as easily settled as contract killings. The film is an excellent debut for writer/director Gray and, IMHO, much better than his follow-up work "The Yards". "Little Odessa" may be short on story with an obvious absence of the tinselization which comes with big bucks, but it is also honest, unpretentious, and sports an excellent cast. Will play best with reality freaks into crime dramas. (B-)