The Birthday Cake

Given its meandering script and absurdly grand guignol ending, it's astonishing that The Birthday Cake could attract such a starry cast.

No matter how you slice it, this star-studded mob film still seems undercooked.

Giannopoulos might be inexperienced, but he's canny with mood and unafraid to experiment with the rhythms of violence. I, for one, am keen to see what he does next.

It's a paean to better movies and you might end up asking yourself why you didn't just watch one of those instead.

There may be a great deal of competition in the category, but I nominate this crime drama as the worst Mob movie ever made!

A barrage of mob movie cliches undermines what might have been an intriguingly offbeat tale.

[Giannopoulos] courts more groan-worthy comparisons by punctuating scenes of extreme violence with Scorsese-style needle-drops and deploying a terribly written voice-over narration that explains stuff that doesn't need explaining.

Goodfellas is a major reference point for this misjudged Mob flick from director Jimmy Giannopoulos, which feels very amateurish by comparison.

A valiant effort, The Birthday Cake will be an ordeal for the casual viewer, but holds enough mystery to pique the interest of those with a taste for the unusual.

Even if this gangster saga has a respectable cast and gritty nostalgic verve, it feels more familiar than fresh.