Ordinary Decent Criminal

Kevin Spacey - Michael Lynch
Linda Fiorentino - Christine Lynch
Helen Baxendale - Lisa
Colin Farrell - Alec Lynch
Peter Mullan - Stevie
Stephen Dillane - Quigley
David Hayman - Tony Brady
Patrick Malahide - Commissioner Daly

Good stories are hard to come by, so when the movie business stumbles across one, it tends to suck it dry. This time it's not volcanoes, asteroids, or Martians, but feel free to experience deja vu anyway. To all intents based on the Martin Cahill story (except for the smartly twisting ending), Michael Lynch (Kevin Spacey) is the mastermind of a gang of Dublin gangsters, enjoying relationships with both his wife and sister-in-law (Helen Baxendale and Linda Fiorentino), and specialising in elaborate heists on jewellers and art galleries.

As his jobs get more ambitious, Lynch steals a Caravaggio but can't sell it, and consequently comes under increasing pressure from both the police and the IRA. A story already detailed in John Boorman’s The General and at least one TV movie Vicious Circle, this version forsakes their gritty realism for hip, fast-moving action. Hip, however, obviously doesn't equal depth, so Lynch's unconventional love life and deep rooted anti -establishment feelings are never really explored, while the imported cast - especially Spacey let their accents waver wildly. But the film makes up for such shortcomings by being a funny, frenetic, comic-strip update of Robin Hood mythology, played with such charm by Spacey that you can't help warming to his fun loving criminal.