It's a kinder, gentler Walken we get to see here, a
former safe-cracker trying to go straight in Brooklyn, while his friends
lure him into one last heist to solve his problems. These include a failing
business, a geriatric mother and a "relative" recently arrived from
Ireland, not to mention having Lauper as a girlfriend (it's okay, she
doesn't sing). The problem here is the pacing: the heist takes place too
early, leaving the film not so much ending, as petering out, and it's one
of those films where I've got to write the review the next day, because
there's not a lot to stick in the mind. The details, however, are
impressive. Put Walken in New York and he's never less than highly
watchable, tiny movements of his head and hands conveying buckets of
emotion and character. If his King of New York had opened up a garage on
getting out of jail, rather than bringing down his own apocalypse, the
results might have been something like this.
C
