Carpets and Rugs Movie Reviews

When a group of guys make a deal with a mobster to start up a restaurant-nightclub, a central table in the club becomes the focus of their lives. Table One has a little mob drama and some satire on nightclub management, but primarily it's a series of conversational riffs on the male ego: How men jockey with each other for status, how men try to impress women, and how men delude themselves about failure. The plot is minimal, so the movie rests on the bits--some of the which are funny (a mob guy trying to convince another to expand his food choices) while others grow tiresome (endless scenes of one of the partners making pathetic efforts to hit on women). Table One has a strong ensemble cast, including Luis Guzman, Stephen Baldwin, Michael Rooker, and Burt Young, who give the masculine banter a relaxed bounce. --Bret Fetzer