The Score

When Sean Connery made Entrapment, it reinforced what had become a universal assumption about the man whose desire for a knighthood appeared stronger than his ability to take risks. Robert De Niro is in a different class. He takes risks all the time, although recently has been criticised for switching to auto. Those who saw Flawless, where he played a retired New York cop, suffering from the effects of a stroke, being given speech therapy by a transvestite, could never doubt his commitment to challenging roles.

The Score is Entrapment 2, with Edward Norton standing in for Catherine Zeta-Jones. What is going on here? De Niro could be replaced by George Clooney, or anyone, even Connery, and you wouldn't notice. Norton makes an attempt at acting as his character has to fake the mannerisms of a retard, but in every other respect this is a caper heist. It even has Marlon Brando, looking larger than Orson Welles, as Mr Big.

The venue is Montreal. The prize is a 17th century French sceptre, worth you-name-it. The burglar-proof vault is the basement of a museum.

Nick (De Niro) is the only man who could pull off a job like this. He has the expertise, the equipment, the nerve. He says he wants to retire, settle down with his girlfriend (Angela Bassett) and run a jazz club. Max (Brando) turns on the charm and makes him an offer he can't refuse. The guy on the inside, Brian (Norton), works as a janitor's assistant at the museum. They'll be a team.

Nick's not having that. He's the leader, the number one. Brian will do what he's told, or he walks. Brian is not impressed by this show of arrogance, but goes along with it anyway. And so the Great Robbery, which resembles all those other Great Robberies in past caper heist flicks, is planned. Do you care? No. But you worry. You worry about De Niro. Isn't it time to call Marty?

The director is Frank Oz, the voice of Miss Piggy. He has never made a decent movie (Housesitter, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Muppet Treasure Island, etc) and yet attracts stellar casts. The mystery of why actors like Norton and Bassett should waste their talent on secondary roles in a film that makes Ronin look good is more intriguing than analysing the defects in this script. Brando's a lost cause. He works when the fridge is empty. De Niro isn't. He doesn't need to prove that he can play Connery better than Connery. He needs to make proper choices.