Robert Costanzo is one of those longtime character actors. Audiences instantly recognize him but they don't know his name. A veteran of small parts in more than 200 movies and television series, including SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, NYPD BLUE, FRIENDS, and THE FLAMINGO KID, Costanzo finally gets... [More]

Robert Costanzo is one of those longtime character actors. Audiences instantly recognize him but they don't know his name. A veteran of small parts in more than 200 movies and television series, including SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, NYPD BLUE, FRIENDS, and THE FLAMINGO KID, Costanzo finally gets his chance to play the lead in Philip Frank Messina's WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE..., in which he stars as Johnny DiMartino, a longtime character actor who's finally up for the lead role in a major motion picture, Martin Scorsese's biopic of mobster Al Capone. Johnny is a happy family guy; WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... opens as he and his wife, Hannah (Amy Madigan), are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, with best friends Armand Minetti (David Strathairn), Dorian Mastandrea (Jon Tenney), and Steve Hersh (Adam Arkin), his poker-playing buddies and fellow character actors. They all fawn over morose producer Maurice Melnick (Bill Murray), who is only there for the free food. As word starts to leak of the secret Scorsese audition, jealousy, paranoia, and betrayal threaten to ruin the men's relationships with each other as well as the women in their lives (Laura San Giacomo, Elle Macpherson, Lauren Tom, Beverly D'Angelo, and Frederika Kesten). The film was made in 1998 but not released theatrically until 2005 because many in the industry believed it to be filled with too many inside jokes. On the contrary, WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... is a charming, funny, poignant, and very clever inside look at minor celebrity in Hollywood. [Less]