You Got Nothin' (2004) - Synopsis
Joey Carlucci, the next great Yankee hopeful, and his best friend of 25
years - Dominick Mazzetti - find themselves in a dead-end job collecting
chump change for "Big Tommy" Cesaro, a big time bookie in Hoboken N.J.
Pissing off Big Tommy's head collector, Charlie, Joey and Dom chase down one
of Charlie's "delinquent accounts" held by Ivan, a deadbeat Russian that's
into Tommy for $4000.
Big Tommy rewards Joey and Dom by giving them the chance to move up in the
organization by finding Willie Starks, a two-bit con artist that has taken
Tommy for $400,000, and Charlie's biggest account. Feeling his livelihood
threatened, Charlie warns Joey and Dom that they are in way over their heads
and better watch their backs. As if this wasn't enough, unbeknownst to
everyone but Dom, Joey is "seeing" Nickie, Big Tommy's daughter, who if Big
Tommy ever found out, would have both Joey and Dom's legs snapped in two.
Through one of Dom's friends at the Hoboken Police Department, he locates
Willie's whereabouts in Los Angeles. And off to California they go to
collect their money. It is here where Joey and Dom's lives begin to
unravel. Kidnapping Willie's 10-year old little girl Rachel by "accident",
and holding her for ransom, starts a relationship between the three that
bonds them together, making it that much more difficult to exchange the kid
for the money when the time comes.
Complicating the issue, Willie is doing "business" with two Cubans, Carlos
and Javier who have an equal amount of interest in getting Rachel back.
According to Willie, Rachel has changed the password to an offshore account
which holds the key to Carlos and Javier's ten million dollars. Joey and
Dom are unaware of the "value" Rachel holds. Carlos and Javier join forces
with Willie to get Rachel back.
Joey and Dom await their payday, and bide their time with Rachel. After a
big day at the batting cages and a trip the racetrack Rachel confronts Dom,
asking why he and Joey "do this for a living". It is at this time that Dom
tells her the story that took place about 10 years ago. Big Tommy had
gotten Joey a shot at playing for the N.Y. Yankees through a tryout for
their AAA team. As it turned out, Joey and the pitcher got into a yelling
match, provoking the pitcher to throw and hit Joey in the head. As a
result, Joey charged the mound and beat the guy within an inch of his life,
thus ending any chance of Joey making it to the big leagues, sentencing them
both to a life of debt-collecting for Big Tommy.
As a comedy of errors propel there lives further into danger, it isn't until
Nickie arrives in L.A. to warn them that (a) her father knows about Joey
and her "relationship" and (b) Charlie has been sent out to do "whatever
needs to be done" to get his money and take care of Joey and Dom. It all
comes to a head when it's time to make the exchange and culminates with a
Mexican standoff where everybody keeps getting the drop on everyone else.
Once the smokes settles, Willie gets his comeuppance, Big Tommy gets his
money, and Rachel returns to Jersey with Joey and Dom to be reunited with
her mother, whom she hasn't seen in 4 years. Joey asks for Big Tommy's
daughter's hand in marriage and after much convincing by Nickie, Big Tommy
throws the biggest wedding Hoboken's ever seen. Finally, as a wedding gift,
Big Tommy gets Joey another shot at playing for the N.Y. Yankees, where Joey
's dreams of professional baseball are realized . or are they? Sometimes in
life "you gotta do what you gotta do".
