Oliver Stone's nattily-made, quirky noir thriller unfortunately piles its mountain of coincidences and double-crosses so high it finally topples over. You'd need a whole column to describe the catalogue of woes that enmeshes petty criminal Bobby (Sean Penn). On the way to Vegas to pay back gambling debts to gangsters who have cut off two of his fingers - throughout, the film wallows in blackness and gore - Bobby's car breaks down. Of course there's a femme fatale (Jennifer Lopez) and of course she wants the hapless Bobby to kill her husband (Nick Nolte), who is just as keen for Bobby to dispatch his spouse. Staggering to the local store, Bobby gets involved in a hold-up in which the owner blasts the robbers - and Bobby's money - apart. A star-studded cast gives full-blooded performances: Nolte's, especially, is right on the mark. The odds are you'll enjoy this - but it could have been so much better.

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