"Before Gangs Had Guns... They Fought With Guts."

Or failing that, they used baseball bats, chains, and wheelbarrows full of cinderblocks. At least that's what director Scott Kalvert would have us believe in Deuces Wild, a film depicting a 1950s turf war in an Italian neighborhood. This is Kalvert's first movie since 1995s' The Basketball Diaries, and the long hiatus leaves him rusty, as Deuces misses the mark quite frequently.

In a bid to keep "junk" off his block forever, tough guy Leon (Stephen Dorff) forms the Deuces after the drug-related death of his younger brother. Tensions mount when Marco (Norman Reedus), leader of the rival Vipers, gets out of prison and looks to revive the drug business in the neighborhood. Local mafia boss Fritzy (Matt Dillon) gives Marco his backing, and demands an end to the Deuce-Viper clashes. Leon refuses, and the violence escalates until the climactic and bloody free-for-all that changes life on the block forever. (Maybe MGM could use that paragraph for the back of the DVD box. Hmmm...)

The atmosphere is vintage 1950s, as the sets, props and costumes all evoke the style of that time period. There are a few fantastic rumble sequences loaded with old-school brawling action. The weapons of choice are bats, pipes, chains and switchblades. A few posers try their hand at firearms (cheaters!), but they get their comeuppance in the end. The performances are reserved and competent, and while most are pretty decent, there's nothing here you haven't seen elsewhere. The only big-name talent here is Dillon, but I don't think that really hurts the film as much as the pacing.

The characters themselves come across as a bit too shallow, as the gangs are classified as good or evil with binary simplicity. The story wraps up all the loose ends, thankfully leaving little hope of seeing Deuces Wild 2: Deuces Wilder. The film inexplicably relies on a slew of slow-motion sequences that add little to the cinematic presentation. We're forced to sit through slow-motion walking, slow-motion thinking, slow-motion making-out-in-the-pool, and of course, slow-motion violence. After all, it just looks cooler, right?

Unfortunately the film feels like it's in slow motion the entire time, as its hour-and-a-half running time feels more like two-and-a-half hours. Deuces wild never really gets going, and by the end the audience knows where it's headed, and we're hoping it gets there quicker than it actually does. The film is a decent effort from Kalvert, but ultimately comes up feeling a bit empty. If you're one of the 12 people who saw this instead of Spiderman, I feel your pain.

Deuces Wild? Meh. More like Deuces Mild.

Thumbs Down.