Three bumbling ex-cons (Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe & Christopher Matthew Cook) accept a lucrative assignment from a Cleveland mafia boss to kidnap the infant son of a rival hood. What could go wrong?

Personally I am of two minds on this comedy-drama. Director Paul Schrader’s craftsmanship is clearly evident in every shot, and a lot of the anarchic humor works. It’s compellingly watchable. Especially Dafoe’s unhinged homicidal maniac; he’s clearly having fun out-Caging Cage. But the plusses are overwritten by brutality, gratuitous violence and a general mean-spiritedness. (93 min)