Crooked Business (2008) Reviews

• Nice try

  Kwah-LeBaire2010-05-31

  An Australian crime caper movie that treads heavily in the footsteps of Guy Ritchie. Very heavily. Ponderously so. Lots of freeze frames. Lots of criminal slang, just in case you forget they're criminals, which (wink, wink) they're not. Not really. Just partial to some of the good things in life which would never come their way in the course of honest endeavours. There's Elmo, who breaks the fourth wall to explain every tedious little detail to the audience. There's Stevie, who is probably bright enough to do a Bunnings commercial, but no brighter. There's a gang of English toughs, led by 'Bondi' Bob McLean. There's a gang of Chinese toughs, led by Peter Cho. There's a gang of Jewish toughs, led by Lou Wiseman, except the word 'Jew' is never heard -- they're all "four by twos". Rhyming slang, get it? There's a loose cannon Bikie. There's a couple of interchangeable briefcases. There's Peppermint Jack, the wise grandfather who punctuates the movie, speaking directly to camera to inform us of the rules of successful criminal living. There's that staple of films noir, the troublesome woman. This one has unbelievably bad interchangeable accents -- Italian, American, Australian -- and an equally unbelievable string of stories, all culminating in the provision of a bag of counterfeit money which saves the day in a tricky piece of story resolution. The criminal gangs manage to step on one another's toes in just the right order. There's lots of bang! bang! bang! and all the bad Bad Guys are dead, leaving the good Bad Guys grinning like three year-olds who have just discovered sweetened condensed milk. The End. All in all, it's a nice try at a caper movie. There are lots better, including the writer-director's earlier attempt "Gettin' Square", and there's plenty worse. [5/10]

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