A cast to die for¿die a lingering death on screen, in Tom DiCillo's under-powered Tarantino-esque comedy drama.

It looks great on paper. New York detective Ray Pluto (Leary), partnered by sexually confused Jerry Cubbins (Buscemi), stops for a burger.

In a moment of freakish farce, Ray's back seizes up during a shoot-up and it's down to a schoolboy to rescue the situation by shooting the gunman - with Ray's gun.

The kid's a hero and Ray's dubbed 'loser cop' by the local newspapers, and also has his cases reassigned to arch-rival detective Chick Dmitri (Sex And The City's Chris Noth).

However, help is literally at hand when English chiropractor Dr Ann Beamer (Hurley) gets to grips with his spine and a bit more on the couch.

When it seems Ray's luck might be back on track, a violent attempted burglary in his apartment block while he's asleep completes the 'double whammy'.

All the ingredients - an A-list cast, off-kilter characters, the odd decent gag and a noir-ish plot - are present and correct¿but something goes badly wrong.

The narrative is lumpy when it should be slick, Leary has a better personal chemistry with Buscemi than real-life buddy Hurley and the action is too comic book for its own good.

We see a bit too much of a couple of wannabe Tarantinos in Ray's block and not enough of Buscemi, who performs grand larceny on any scene he's in.

There's also a surfeit of personal detail: to add to the confusion, Ray's still feeling guilty about the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car crash years before.

Add a perverse contract killing on the apartment block's caretaker Luiz Guzman - by his daughter - and you don't have a comedy hit, you have a half-cocked misfire.

Tim Evans