From the Clooney/Soderbergh production stable Section Eight, this reworking of Italian classic Big Deal On Madonna Street showcases its backers' offbeat humour without quite scaling the creative heights of their other work.
There's an abandoned apartment next to a jewellers and tunnelling through the wall should lead to an easy, six-figure score. But you've gotta expect trouble when the would-be robbers include a dizzy tramp (Michael Jeter), an insane pseudo-aristocrat (Isaiah Washington) and a babysitter-less single father (William H Macy)...
It's the cast that makes this slight slapstick yarn, with the funniest turn coming from Sam Rockwell. His character may waver from hapless loser to arse-kicking gang leader, but that doesn't stop him stealing the movie from under everyone elses' noses. Mind you, Clooney has a pretty good go himself, turning in a must-see cameo as a wheelchair-bound safecracker with a yen for bizarre disguises.
