Borrowing heavily from leftfield genre spin-offs like True Romance, it's no wonder this misfire was on the shelves for so long. Barry Pepper is the white sheep of a Mafia family who begs his father (Dennis Hopper) for a shot at the business. In the end, four young turks head out on the job. Naturally it all goes horribly wrong, and, alas, so does the film, wobbling awkwardly between black comedy and drama - and it's never wobblier than when it's taking itself overly serious. It's also strange to contrast the pleasant sight of young, underrated actors getting better (Pepper, Green) with their notoriously unreliable elders (Hopper, Malkovich) getting worse.
Knockaround Guys Review
As a dip-their-toe-into-the-water shot at the family business, the sons of four Brooklyn mobtsers (Green, Pepper, Diesel and Davoli) are sent on an errand to retrieve a sum of money from a small town in Montana, run by a cruel sheriff (Noonan).
Release Date:
01 Jan 2001
Running Time:
91 minutes
Certificate:
15
Original Title:
Knockaround Guys
It's a mess (and a slightly tedious one at that), but it's hardly the fault of the four up-and-comers. They do the best with what they've got, but the underdeveloped script doesn't support its own changes in tone.
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