Rock Ness v Monster

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2009)

Again this is probably one of those that played better on its release than it does twenty years later on TV. David Mamet has quite a rep as a writer of dialogue, based on the plays he has written for the stage but nothing much here moves out of the pedestrian class. It's competent in all departments but has more than a little larceny going for it, helmer de Palma 'lifts' a scene from Eisenstein's Potemkin and DeNiro 'lifts' a performance from Rod Steiger, who beat him to the role of Al Capone. Costner is effective by underplaying just as Connery is less effective by overplaying. Adds absolutely zero to our knowledge of the characters and the period but passes the time without boring.