arfdawg-1 After being away for a couple of years, Jerry Bolanti is back in his tough, North Jersey neighborhood, close to swampy meadowlands where bodies get pulled from the trunks of cars and dumped. He's short on cash, so a local boss, Anthony Iadavia, throws him some work - as a collector and a holdup man. But Jerry's cocky and a hothead, so he makes enemies faster than he can deliver on the jobs. Whatever bag or case of cash he touches doesn't seem to make it back to Iadavia. But Jerry's resilient and persistent, so he just may get his revenge as well as a chance to go caravan camping with his girl.Very poor production values and blurry / grainy as can be. Not sure if it was that way originally or something happened over the years.It's an interesting little low budget film but no where near as violent as you'd expect from a mobster movie made in the mid-70s.It's definitely worth a look, but be warned, its' rather slow.

bayardhiler Its probably a safe bet to say that "Family Enforcer" or "The Death Collector" (origianl title) won't go down as one of the best mob/gangster movies ever made. Never the less, even with the obvious low budget, if you're fascinated by mobsters and gangsters, "Family Enforcer" definitely has something to offer. The movie follows the style of such films as "Goodfellas" and "Mean Streets" by following the lower level guys in the criminal ladder, the main one here being Jerry Bolanti (played by Joe Cortese). Fresh out of prison, Jerry visits the local mob boss in his Jersey neighborhood (a completely unknown Lou Criscuolo) for some "work". What follows is a messy odyssey of collections, botched robberies, and murder. If I had to guess what makes the movie effective, it would probably be the gritty atmosphere that the movie is able to create that seems all too real, from the shady clubs where the guys hang out to the shots of the Jersey meadows where the bodies are dumped. Of course, what is most likely to draw people to this movie-if they've heard of it-is probably the chance of seeing Joe Pesci before he became a star, though I must empathize, Pesci is not the star, despite what the jacket cover on IMDb might show. The film is helped by the good acting of all involved, including another future mob movie fixture, Frank Vincent. The film is not perfect, but never the less, I can't help but wonder why the director, Ralph De Vito, never directed another movie again (I've heard from others on this site that he was actually murdered in a shooting. If that's true, then maybe Mr. De Vito got a little too close to reality for his own good). So, while I can't say this is a great movie, its not a bad one to catch when you have nothing to do.

classicsoncall So I think I discovered a movie sub-genre here that I'll call the 'bada-bing' film. Released four years after "The Godfather", arguably one of the best films of all time, someone would consider it a good idea to come up with an Italian mobster flick called "The Death Collector". I don't have any idea how many Godfather knock-offs there might have been, but if this were the only one (besides II and III), it would have been one too many.I've read with interest all of the other reviewers on this site, and it's curious to me that not many of them consist of more than a few sentences. Maybe because no one could follow this story? Let me boil it down for you. Jerry Bolanti (Joseph Cortese) figures muscle is more important than brains and alliances, and goes calling on a twenty seven thousand dollar debt from Bernie Feldshuh (Frank Vincent). Bernie pays off after some coaxing (doors pulled off his house), but figures he'll go after both Jerry and businessman Herb Greene who hired him. Jerry gets semi-whacked (doesn't die), while Bernie hires Spinoza (Frank Amirrati) who then hires Sam (?) to knock off Greene and the secretary who would have been a witness. Still with me? To keep the mean streets from boiling over, Jerry's benefactor Anthony (Lou Criscuolo) the pizza shop guy, knocks off Bernie and his bodyguard for all the trouble they were causing. Upon recuperating from his injuries, Jerry teams up with mobster Joey Ubanz (Joe Pesci) and his partner Serge (Bobby Alto), both of whom get knocked off by Sam. A confrontation between Jerry and Sam in the shadow of the Twin Towers and the New Jersey Meadowlands might have been the end of the story, except for what follows. I could give it away, and you could probably figure it out, but to be absolutely sure of the ending, you'll have to catch the film.Notwithstanding the convoluted story line, here's what else I learned - room service doesn't have hookers, and you don't throw peanuts at lounge singers. As for Joe Pesci, yeah, he's in the picture. But don't take it on faith that he makes the picture like other reviewers on this board have stated. I mean, really, he got whacked like everybody else.

Pluto_of_Pluto This is not the best movie in the world, however, it does come in handy when one is looking for a way to waste time. For a cheesy 70s lowbudget mafia flick, it covers all the bases it needs to and nothing more. It doesn't need to. The best way to view it is to not expect much. This way you will be surprised at how decent a film this really is. The plot is simple. The guy becomes an enforcer for the mob, crosses his boss and his boss comes after him. The acting isn't great but it's far from terrible and the action sequences, while sometimes laughable, are really not too shabby. I would love to get more films like this. They are just very hard to find. Lowbudget cheese doesn't always make for a bad film.