WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A group of very small-time hoods (make that micro-second hoods) get their hands on the opportunity of a heist of a lifetime. But the heist is not foolproof and these are just the fools to prove it is not. In fact these hoods are a combination of wickedly clever and painfully stupid. The result is amusing, though it has all been done before, at least twice literally. Slight but pleasant. Rating 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
We have all seen heist films like OCEANS ELEVEN where a crack team of expert criminals get together for a crime that goes off like clockwork. In this film a group of general incompetents get together to pull a jewelry heist. Clockwork is just how it does not go. In fact, just about nothing goes in the way you expect from professionals. Still, somehow the crime gets pulled together. WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD is a remake of BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958), a film that has already been remade at least once as CRACKERS in 1984 by Louis Malle.
The whole sad story begins when petty criminal Cosimo (Luis Guzman) is jailed with a lifer who knows where a really good job is. This isn't just a good job, it's a Bellini! (What's a Bellini? It's the kind of crime every petty criminal comes his way just once.) The lifer is willing to tell Cosimo about his Bellini because he is stuck in prison. Cosimo thinks he can put together the crime, but does not want to tell anyone but his girlfriend. Strictly not to tell anyone else. Right. The crime is put together a bit at a time, but not quite like it was done in RIFIFI.
The characters in this film are for Cleveland what Damon Runyan characters were for New York. (In fact, one clever bit seems borrowed from Runyan's "Butch Minds the Baby") The gangster patter is humorous and the viewer will know the difference between a Mollinsky and a Bellini.
Anthony and Joe Russo shot the film on location in the run-down section of Cleveland, Ohio. The adaptation is fairly funny and got more than its share of audience laughs. Overall it is a decent comic crime film with neither any great virtues nor any bad faults. Featured are William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell. George Clooney has a small role.
Nobody is going to get extremely excited about WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD as a feature film debut of co-directors and co-writers Anthony and Joe Russo. Still, it has moments. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
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