Rating: 
Summary: Great acting, but little else.
Review: Knockaround Guys (Brian Koppelman and David Levien, 1999)Koppelman and Levien, the writers behind the brilliant Rounders (and the not-so-brilliant Runaway Jury) take their first (and, to date, last) helming job with Knockaround Guys. This film has taken a lot of flak from a lot of sides, and some of it justifiably; they should have left the direction to John Dahl (Rounders) again, because we ended up with a number of above-average performances in a mess of a movie. Matty Demaret (emerging star Barry Pepper, recently in 25th Hour and We Were Soldiers) is the kid of a mob boss known as Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper). He wants to live a normal life, but as soon as anyone hears he's a mob boss' kid, they shy away. So his only real option is to become a mob kid. Unfortunately, he tried that at thirteen and failed miserably. But he convinces his father to give him one more chance; he has to go pick up a bag of cash in Seattle and get it to New York City. He subcontracts out the job to his friend Johnny Marbles (Seth Green), who manages to lose the bag when stopping for gas in the nowhere town of Wibeaux, Montana. Matty and his friends Taylor (Vin Diesel, in what would have been his second big-screen appearance had the movie been released on time) and Chris (Andrew Davoli of Welcome to Collinwood fame) go to Wibeaux to help Marbles (Chris' brother, by the way) retrieve the money, all the while being told by Benny and Benny's right hand man Teddy (John Malkovich, reprising his Rounders role as Teddy KGB right down to the accent) that if they don't get this bag back pronto, the whole lot of them are going to be rubbed out. Let's face it, when your main characters include Diesel, Pepper, Green, Hopper, and Malkovich, you're bound to get some good roles. Diesel, especially, is worthwhile here; his "aesthetics of fighting" monologue doesn't have the emotional resonance of the "Raisin in the Sun" monologue of Multi-Facial, but the delivery is easily on a par. Pepper and Green play their Reservoir-Dogs-esque roles capably, though as the film progresses the roles themselves get more ludicrous. Malkovich has the same quiet menace here that he did in Rounders, but the role is overexposed (it was done perfectly in the former movie). Etc. The plot pretty much falls apart after Marbles loses the money, though; the directors didn't seem sure if they wanted to make a Reservoir Dogs-style comedy or a Lifetime Original Movie coming-of-age drama. The hybrid of the two does not a real barnburner make. See it if you're a fan of any of the principals, but most of the rest of anyone will be wondering what that mess was. **
Rating: 
Summary: Physco
Review: I loved this film...especially when Taylo{Diesel} kicks the junk outta the bouncer. When matty, in the end shoots Teddy{Malkovich} is awesome too. I fyou looking for a great movie, then c thiss.... "Getting the bag involves some gunshots, getting cut, and getting brutally beaten...TWO THUMBS WAY UP..."
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable film with a little imagination...
Review: This is a film that deserves some credit for originality because the story and plot are something that the actors obviously had some fun with. Aside from someone getting killed near the end of the film, this is a film with a sense of humor. Vin Diesel, Barry Papper, Seth Green, and Dennis Hopper give good performances. This is a light film that doesn't take a lot of thought to get, which is okay. Without going into a plot synopsis (I'm not going to explain something you can see for yourself), I will say that the story unfolds after Johnny Marbles (Seth Green) misplaces a valuable item earmarked for delivery to the New York mob at an airport in Montana. A contingency from New York headed by of Pepper and Diesel appear and set out in search of the lost item. They do this by first finding the biggest badass in the town and then proceed to beat the cr*p out of him. It sounds like pretty half-baked idea, but then, the story continues to unfold. In the end, there's a little plot twist. One little thing about the movie I thought was cool was that they showed guys - some of the characters - playing handball in the courts outside Central Park. At the end of the film, the Malkovich character has a few things to say about losing at handball (and how much he doesn't like losing) at the end of the film. I could relate. This isn't a five star flick, but I gave it five stars anyway, because it's a good 'B' film, and there really wasn't anything wrong with it. Then again, this film isn't as great as "The Bridge on the River Kwai," but it isn't as awful as "The English Patient," either.
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