Hollywood in the 1990s continued to be obsessed with Prohibition gangsters even though all the fun had gone out of the genre some years before. This is a particularly humourless example set in Harlem, where the black supremacy in the numbers racket (the equivalent of today's lottery) is challenged by Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth), mad-dog associate of Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) and his cohorts. The black gangsters, led by Bumpy Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), are portrayed as the upholders of the poor and righteous; everyone else, including the law enforcers, is as corrupt as they come. Bumpy is seen as a civilised man because he plays chess and writes poetry. Not surprisingly, though, acting honours go to Roth as the eye-catching Schultz, although it's difficult to see how this little runt got to the top. Mostly, though, this is a trudge through familiar alleys, hardly the most dynamic of its kind even in the sober Nineties.

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