An irresistible melange of showbiz and politics, The Rat Pack is a sprawling HBO TV movie about the late-50s axis between Frank Sinatra's cool-talking cronies and the White House-bound Kennedy clan. Ray Liotta, William L Petersen and Joe Mantegna manage to give real performances as opposed to impersonations as Frankie, JFK and Dean Martin, and there's a stand-out turn from Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr, who fantasises a blazing, gunslinging rendition of "I've Got You Under My Skin" as delivered to the cross-burning Nazi pickets outside his hotel campaigning against his marriage to a white Swedish starlet. Naturally the story goes over a lot of familiar ground (Marilyn Monroe, and so on,) but the Hollywood-Vegas angle, with the obvious criminal tie-ins, lends it a freshness. Angus McFadyen remains typecast as real-life actors, following up his Orson Welles (Cradle Will Rock) and Richard Burton (Liz, the Elizabeth Taylor biopic) by doing a squirming, but funny take on Peter Lawford, caught between the White House and Sinatra's vast, demanding ego. Its general style is somewhere between a Scorsese gangland epic and made-for-TV muckraking biopic and a lot of material from Shawn Levy's fine book Rat Pack Confidential is worked into the weave.

On the DVD: The Rat Pack is a no-frills disc presented in a good-looking 16:9 anamorphic transfer, though as it's a TV movie this means trimming the top and the bottom of the image. --Kim Newman

ray liotta is great as frank, perfect present for my old man i thought . but no uk release !

This is a fascinating insight into the lives of some of the biggest stars of the fifties and sixties. You know the music, you know the movies and all about this gang of buddies. Swanning around and doing their own thing.
But as this film shows, there were even bigger fish frying.
Politics, Organised Crime and Showbusiness were more closely linked than you might think.
A little known but great film in my view with more value and insight than JFK and with better tunes too!
No extras on the DvD but who cares? At the price of ??5.99 it is utterley reccomended. Just buy it!

This is a fascinating insight into the lives of some of the biggest stars of the fifties and sixties. You know the music, you know the movies and all about this gang of buddies. Swanning around and doing their own thing.
But as this film shows, there were even bigger fish frying.
Politics, Organised Crime and Showbusiness were more closely linked than you might think.
A little known but great film in my view with more value and insight than JFK and with better tunes too!
Utterley reccomended.