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Review

Bristling with enough testerone-pumped moxie to incinerate the screen, this tense kidnapping thriller has the gritty edge of the best films noir. Phillippe and del Toro are an unlikely duo of small-time punks who hatch a scheme to abduct a surrogate mother (Lewis) who's very-pregnant with the child of a millionaire. By the time they realize the father is the local Mafioso, the boss' badass bodyguards and an ice-cool hit man (Caan) are already hunting them down. First-time director McQuarrie (screenwriter of The Usual Suspects) certainly has a respect for the genre, but doesn't always trust his audience; every time the movie gains momentum, it comes screeching to an abrupt halt again as characters take yet another time-out for a status check. The story is dense with crisscrossing subplots and dubious alliances, but the stop-start nature of the film can be crippling. Thankfully, there's enough macho banter to keep things crackling, and there are plenty of showdowns and shootouts. McQuarrie conjures an appropriately bleak atmosphere and has some fun toying with familiar genre conventions. The cast is in terrific tough-guy form, especially the understated Caan as an aged "adjudicator" flirting with obsolescence.

 -- Steven D. Segal