If Hollywood had a football team, Josh Hartnett would be great in central midfield. And it's not just because he has the furrowed looks and squinty determination of Steven Gerrard.

When he plays in the front two, the result is 40 Days And 40 Nights or Hollywood Homicide, whereas Black Hawk Down and Sin City show that he's at his best when he links up with three or four top performers.

In Lucky Number Slevin, he has Morgan Freeman and - all bow - Sir Ben Kingsley to either side, with Lucy Liu slotting in behind him and Bruce Willis playing a roving role.

It's a line-up that Scottish director Paul McGuigan makes full use of as he reteams with Wicker Park star Hartnett and transports the underworld trappings of Gangster No. 1 to the hideously decorated apartments of New York.

The action, like bad luck, follows a young man called Slevin (Hartnett). Evicted, cheated-on and mugged, he's making himself at home in his friend Nick Fisher's flat when flirty neighbour Lindsey (Liu in a rare nice-girl role) shows up. They get on.

That's the last of the warm welcomes. First, two goons appear and - assuming Slevin is Fisher - frog-march him, clad only in a towel, to a penthouse office.

He's greeted by The Boss (Freeman), who demands the repayment of $96,000. Either that, or 'Fisher' settles the debt by killing the son of The Boss's bitter rival, The Rabbi (Kingsley).

No sooner does Slevin get back to the apartment than another pair of (Jewish) thugs whisk him off (still in towel) to see The Rabbi... whose suite is dead opposite that of The Boss. It's been that way for 20 years. The Rabbi just wants his cash.

But he's not Nick Fisher, he's Slevin Kelevra. Kelevra by name, yet cleverer by nature, it transpires, as he sets about extricating himself from his predicament.

That includes eluding a tenacious cop (Stanley Tucci) and a hitman (Willis) who's playing both sides.

To recap: mistaken identity, a Boss, a Rabbi, big debts, an assassination assignment, cops, goons, Lucy Liu and a duplicitous killer.

Though it's characters are prone to spouting asinine profundities and it bears the stamp of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie's early stuff, this is pulp fiction at its most stylish.

The cast is as impressive as the body count. Indeed, four people are - in The Boss's parlance - "relegated to the past tense" before the opening credits are halfway through.

Ignore the feeble, tabloid-pun title and settle in for a neatly executed and viciously entertaining thriller which pulls off a very smart 'Kansas City Shuffle'.

And there's only one way to find out what that means...

Elliott Noble