(2002)
3.5
Buzz McClain
Fitfully engaging from the start, this Australian period caper comedy, decorated in loud Pop Art colors, is sent over the top by an effortlessly polished cast, vividly kinetic cinematography (by Geoffrey Hall, who also shot the energetic cult favorite Chopper), and a commanding performance by Bryan Brown as an inscrutable gangster prone to sudden violence. Tim Rogers' pop-song score is essential, as well. The story glides along as if on roller skates and is edited at an infectious rhythm; somehow writer/director David Caesar manages to pull together several parallel story lines for a climactic convergence that is nothing short of classic. There are laughs -- many of them at John Goodman's moping mobster's expense -- but Brown's menace provides gravity and keeps it from being lightweight. Compare it to any of Guy Ritchie's capers -- Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels -- but with happier endings.
Dirty Deeds on AllMovie
Dirty Deeds (2002)
