In terms of sheer influence, Quentin Tarantino has got nothing on Martin Scorsese, and 25 years after its release, Mean Streets is still being ripped off, remade, and otherwise revised. Monument Ave. more or less transplants Scorsese's tale of low-level street thugs from New York to Boston and transforms their ethnicity from Italian to Irish. But the films do differ significantly in tone, with director Ted Demme giving his movie a moody, almost elegiac, quality in place of Scorsese's rock 'n' roll dynamics. Denis Leary plays a thief who spends more time drinking than stealing in a tight-knit Irish community where it seems everybody is related. For Leary, Charlestown offers everything he needs, from friendship to drugs. But the town also proves a dead end, as his various cousins, blood brothers, and partners in crime start getting whacked when they run afoul of the local head hood (Colm Meaney). Unfortunately, Monument Ave. is another one of those films in which the central character always talks about trying to "get out" when there doesn't appear to be anything keeping him in. From its racism to its violence, Charlestown isn't very appealing, even for two-bit hoods, so why not pick up stakes and head for greener pastures? Familiar plot arc aside, Demme populates his movie with great actors who possess even better faces. Even if Leary, Ian Hart, Famke Janssen, and Jason Barry (among others) didn't open their mouths, we'd get a clear sense of the neighborhood's blue-collar grit. Besides, Demme seems to be aiming for an almost impressionistic quality, with the gray, downbeat locations speaking louder and more clearly than any of the lunkheaded and tragically inclined players. Though too short to earn any real sympathy for the characters, and too slow to generate any excitement, Monument Ave. is moderately haunting and occasionally affecting.