Remember when Vincent Savino’s Tumbleweed Club deal with the Milwaukee mob went south? So does Milwaukee. Now they’ve sent their scariest hit man after Savino, and he’s leaving a trail of bodies along the way.
There are two things that make the hit man “Jones” so terrifying. 1) He’s a gentleman when he’s murdering someone. So, when a little old lady walks in on him wasting one of Savino’s guys, he bows his head and gives a polite smile “hello” before he kills her, too. There’s a cold-hearted politeness there that only a hit man with a lot of notches under his belt could have acquired. 2) He always gets his man.
Sheriff Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid), his brother Jack (Jason O’Mara), and son are on the case of the murdered mobster and old lady, and they quickly put it together that Savino is next. After Jones shoots a young officer who was following a lead, the Lamb men pay Savino a visit and it doesn’t go down the way anyone expects.
Lamb arrests Savino (Michael Chiklis) to keep him protected, “they can’t get to you if you’re on my hip.” This isn’t because Ralph has suddenly had a change of heart for the charismatic mobster, but because he’s tired of seeing innocent people get caught in the crossfire. To make it look more authentic, Jack closes down the casino (which Mia takes very personally considering their flirtation has seen a spike recently) and Ralph escorts Savino out in handcuffs.
At his ranch, Lamb serves Savino a steak dinner with a steaming side of contempt and hatred. The two share an interesting banter between enemies that is bitter in tone and at the same time incredibly personal. For the first time, Ralph opens up about his wife’s death. She was in a car accident when he was away at war. After a genuine “that’s a shame” from Savino, he chooses to antagonize and pushes the issue. Ralph punches him in the jaw and that shuts him up.
Just then, Ralph discovers Jones is on his property looking for Savino. Ralph immediately shoots Jones’ driver and then Savino and Ralph work together to bring down Jones. Although he seems like a guy you might want to shoot in the head so he doesn’t come back for revenge in the sequel, Lamb insists on simply taking him to jail.
Back at the Savoy, Angelo (Michael Weisman) and Johnny Rizzo (Jonathan Banks) want to take Vincent for “a drive.” Mob movie fans out there know what that means. Vincent’s not coming home. In the middle of the desert, Angelo explains that he looks at Savino like a son, but Milwaukee’s mad over the Tumbleweed deal and needs his blood for retribution. Angelo can’t watch, so he turns his back, but then Rizzo shoots Angelo instead of Savino!
He may still be breathing, but now Vincent has a new problem on his hands. Rizzo is taking over the Savoy andVegas. We all know that this temper-throwing gangster is one bad martini away from a having a hissy fit that blows Chicago’s whole Vegas plot and Savino’s plans to go legit.
Leave a Comment