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Fresh out of prison, Jake Green (Jason Statham) plans the ultimate con with the help of former jail-mates Zack (Vincent Pastore) and Avi (Andre Benjamin). Their target: neurotic casino owner Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta).

Big question: “Revolver” premiered at the Toronto film festival a little over two years ago. What took so long for it to hit American movie screens?

Skip it: Character names like Jake Green, Dorothy Macha, Sam Gold and Lord John immediately signal we’re once again in the world of Guy Ritchie’s hipper-than-thou tough guys—which was already tired when he released “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” in 1998. The twist here: Ritchie tries to add some substance to his style, and falls flat on his face. The problem isn’t that his philosophical themes are difficult to understand--he repeats them endlessly—it’s the muddled way they’re manifested in a needlessly convoluted plot.

Catch it: If you’re just dying to see Liotta ranting and raving in bikini briefs, and, in one scene, even less (eek!).

Bottom line: A movie unlikely to satisfy even the filmmaker’s most hardcore fans. Ritchie remains hopelessly inept at delivering a caper flick that’s as fun as it is flashy, but now he looks like a pretentious jackass too.

Bonus: The movie’s barrage of quotations on title cards—from Julius Caesar, Machievelli, “Fundamentals of Chess” and “Etiquette of Business”—can mean only one thing. Ritchie obviously intends to start his own book club. We can’t wait to see next month’s selection.

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