Sully is desperate to give his unborn son the chance he never had. Jasper wants to escape the mobsters that have infiltrated his life and business. Parmie, a local mob boss, dreams of crushing the competition. All three men live in Staten Island, and once their lives intersect, nothing will ever be the same.
Staten Island is not without surprises -- nor is it any good.
– Nicolas Rapold,
Time Out New York,
18 Nov 2009
rotten:
Best is D'Onofrio as a gangster turned environmental activist -- he puts on a white three-piece suit, climbs to the top of a gigantic tree and refuses to come down.
– V.A. Musetto,
New York Post,
20 Nov 2009
fresh:
If Staten Island, New York is an ode to what it calls "the forgotten stepchild of Manhattan," it is a barbed and quirky one.
– Andy Webster,
New York Times,
20 Nov 2009
rotten:
The tonal idiosyncrasies may grate early on but things coalesce nicely until the whole thing starts to resemble a diverting short story.
– Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Nov 2009
rotten:
DeMonaco deserves credit for wanting to do something different. But what starts out as a witty tweak on tired mobster movies eventually collapses into those very same cliches.