After Wicker Park, their winsome adap of French noir L'Appartement, expectations were hardly sky-high for the second teaming of Scottish director Paul McGuigan and pretty-boy Josh Hartnett. Despite the awful title and weak pay-off, though, this tricksy thriller goes some way to redeeming them both, combining Quentin cool with the Coens' dark wit and a supporting cast that any thriller would be lucky to have.
Okay, so there's nothing particularly original in this story of a luckless schmo who finds himself caught between a hitman (Bruce Willis), a hard place and two rival crime lords (Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman). The pleasure is in the throwaway dialogue, the artfully jumbled chronology and Lucy Liu, giving the movie a vital jolt of energy as the kooky coroner who takes a shine to Hartnett's hapless hero.
DVD Extras:
Pity the extras - a slim smattering of interviews and a lone trailer - belong on one of her slabs.
