MOVIE REVIEW

By GENE SEYMOUR, Newsday

Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich as Italian American Brooklyn crime bosses? After three-plus seasons of "The Sopranos" and dozens upon dozens of gangster epics, casting two of cinema's iconic weirdos as mob royalty in "Knockaround Guys" seems ... what? ... too reductive, too shallow, too ... exotic? Certainly, Malkovich's portrayal of mob lieutenant Teddy Deserve (!) and his lacquered swagger represent the only thing here that you haven't seen a hundred times before.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien, making their directorial debut after writing the screenplay for 1998's cult-fave poker flick, "Rounders," seemed to have started out with an unusual premise. Matty Demaret (Barry Pepper), son of crime czar Benny Chains (Hopper), is trying to get a job as a sports agent but is rebuffed because of his family ties. With Matty's own real-world prospects narrowing, he asks his dad and "Uncle Teddy" for a chance to prove himself by supervising what seems a routine transfer of illicit cash. He gets three buddies: faux swinger Chris (Andrew Davoli), muscleman Taylor (Vin Diesel) and grubby gofer Johnny Marbles (Seth Green). While flying the bag of swag from Spokane to New York, Johnny stops to refuel in Montana, where the sight of a local lawman (Tom Noonan) spooks him and the scheme goes awry. Everyone carries out assigned roles with conviction, even Diesel and Green, who fit into the confines of this genre better than one would expect.

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Rated R, for violence, language and some drug use. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. In general release.