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Just one commercial. I saw the actors that were being teamed up, learned just enough to be intrigued by the story’s potential, and I decided I had to see Knockaround Guys. I’m pained to say that I was expecting more from the directorial debut of Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the screenwriting duo that cranked out Rounders.
Don’t get me wrong -- I liked the movie. I just assumed it would measure up to other such rough-and-tumble flicks as Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and the awe-inducing cinematic experience called Snatch. It fell a little short.
The movie centers on Matty Demaret (Barry Pepper), a young man who happens to be the son of mob underboss Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper). Struggling to make his own way in the world isn’t working for Matty, so he begs Dad for a job -- you know, a job. He’s given a pickup task involving money that is exceedingly important to his father, and he immediately assigns his drug-addicted friend Johnny Marbles (Seth Green) the role of pickup man. The first real plot twist (which is actually more of a gentle curve) sends Matty and his two other friends, Taylor Reese (Vin Diesel) and Chris Scarpa (Andrew Davoli), into the middle of small-town Minnesota (or was it Montana?) to finish the job.
Madness ensues as they tangle up with the local law, and things get even messier when Matty’s uncle Teddy (John Malkovich) and a couple of old-school wiseguys get involved. The cast is definitely impressive, but the surprises aren’t really that surprising. It’s something along the lines of I bet this happens -- a character says, “This will never happen,” -- and then it happens anyway.
The dialog was stellar -- brilliant one-liners and poignant observations. Yet, at the same time, I noticed several missed opportunities (watch Vin Diesel’s barroom soliloquy and tell me you didn’t expect him to croak something with a little more oomph at the end).
Overall, I was left with the impression that, at least in their roles as directors, Koppelman and Levien set out to make a film like Reservoir Dogs or Snatch. What they ended up with was something a little Tarantino-esque, minus the laugh-out-loud humor. The attempt to imitate other great films was too deliberate, and it lacked any special little gimmicks that make movies like this memorable.
If you’re after the same rush you got from Snatch or LS&2SB, don’t hold your breath. But if you’re really jonesing for your wiseguy fix, it’ll do. There are enough good quotes to share with your friends later, and the plot is sufficiently entertaining, even if it is a little predictable. If mob-movies and schemes-gone-wrong are your thing, it’s definitely worth a look. But don’t mourn missing it in the theater. In the end, Knockaround Guys was a good movie -- a solid effort for a directorial debut. But it could have been so much more.
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