Hitmen firing blanks

This poorly plotted entry in the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels comedy thriller genre has Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar as a brace of hopeless petty criminals adrift in Chicago. Through a quaint (and frankly dog-eared) device they are mistaken for professional assassins.

Spotting a money-making opportunity, they pursue the paper trail to a hotel room where they discover cash, a gun and a photograph of their intended victim. Unknown to them, the target is a leading mob boss (Pete Postlethwaite) on the verge of retirement, whose beautiful daughter (Claire Forlani) is relatively

untainted by her father's occupation.

This kind of black comedy is very difficult to pull off and director John Bradshaw misses the necessary balance (most brilliantly achieved in John Huston's Prizzi's Honour as well as in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Snatch) by miles. Abrasively violent and weakly humorous, it falls into the trap of adding unnecessary complications (and a surfeit of drunk scenes) to bolster a flagging narrative.

The casting is similarly delusional: Brit Postlethwaite plays an American gangster while US actress Amanda Plummer is a Liverpudlian housewife. The one grace note is the luminous presence of Forlani, who gives a good screen kiss and deserves a much better vehicle for her talents.