Brooklyn Rules

Years after Federal Hill (1994), director Michael Corrente is still doing low-budget Mean Streets knockoffs. Set in 1985, Brooklyn Rules stars Freddie Prinze Jr., pluckier than usual, as a Brooklyn wiseass who must decide if he wants to become an upscale lawyer or spend the rest of his life as a third-rate De Niro impersonation. Entourage‘s Jerry Ferrara puts a new spin on his baby-faced moxie, and Alec Baldwin, as a Mob boss, seethes. The boys-in-the-Italian-hood clichés were penned by Sopranos scribe Terence Winter, so they have snap, if not freshness. C+