Running time: 86 minutes
Starring: William H Macy, Luis Guzman, Sam Rockwell, Jennifer Esposito, Isaiah Washington, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney
Rating 1 out of 10
Imagine the following scenario: you and your brother make a fifteen minute graduation piece for film school. The world's hottest male star and Hollywood's hottest director see the piece and offer you the world. Not only will they produce your debut feature, but the hottest star will feature in it, alongside some of Hollywood's crème de la crème of the acting world. It might seem far-fetched but it's exactly what happened to Cleveland filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo. The star and director were George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, while the likes of William H Macy, Jennifer Esposito and Sam Rockwell made up an impressive cast.This is an old-fashioned caper comedy. When petty criminal Luis Guzman is arrested, he leaks the details of a perfect robbery he was about to commit. Back in his neighborhood of Collinwood a group of motley smalltimers decide to run with the plan. Suitably mismatched, it appears their hopes have little chance of success.
Borrowing heavily from the 1958 Italian comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street, and highly reminiscent of the break-in scenes in Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks, this sets out to be a rollicking comedy from the first reel. But it fails on several levels and soon becomes a rather trite bore of a film.
Fault one lies with the script. Full of plotholes and lines that are simply not funny, it sees talented actors reduced to working with material they are way too good for. The script forces the actors to come up with some drawn out characterizations for the parts, so that they soon become nothing more than caricatures.
The style of the movie, all pace and gung-ho frivolity, is also extremely annoying. It's almost as if it is forcing you to laugh. Devoid of subtlety and underscored by the most jarring jazz and dixie blues soundtrack (which seems to last throughout the entire picture), here is a movie that begins to grate after five minutes and never ceases for its notably short 86 minute duration.
Poor script, dreadful gags, terrible score...what else could there be? Oh yes, Clooney. Prominently displayed on the cover it's could easily be taken that this is a Clooney movie. Don't be fooled - even though he is the best thing in it as a cynical wheelchair-bound safecracker, his screen time is less than five minutes. To be honest, his appearance feel like a bit of a con. As does the rest of this distinctly less-than-average fare.
