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A bargain basement "Reservoir Dogs," "Knockaround Guys" is a generic mobster film. Perhaps some junior studio executive smelled a profitable ride on the coattails of "The Sopranos" -- or some residual box office owing to the unremarkable presence here of Vin Diesel, star of the box-office success "XXX").

There is nothing else to explain how this mediocre film got made, or got a studio release that included a decent amount of fanfare. It might hold some appeal to undiscriminating fans of the ultra-bland, tough-guys-in-black-doing-dumb-things genre. But anyone looking for a fresh or funny take on the mob-movie genre will find nothing but the same old cliches and stereotypes -- just younger and hunkier.

The film starts like a send-up of "Road to Perdition," as a mob kid named Matty (Barry Pepper) tries to prove his mettle to a slimy father figure played by John Malkovich. Matty grows up with a daddy complex, and who wouldn't when Daddy is Dennis Hopper (as mob boss and ex-con "Benny Chains"), who thinks his kid is a softy? Poor Matty can't catch a break. When he tries to play it straight by interviewing for a sports agent's job, he's rejected as soon as his prospective employers discover his lineage. There's nothing else for the poor kid to do, it seems, but join the family business.

To show Dad he's got the stuff, Matty assembles a motley band of young thugs, including the ludicrously dimwitted Johnny Marbles (Seth Green). When Marbles loses a suitcase full of the mob's money in the Midwest, Matty and the rest of the crew head for the plains in their silk suits. There, they tangle in barroom brawls and go up against a crooked sheriff (Tom Noonan) until the inevitable showdown, where double- and triple-crosses are meant to show that milquetoast Matty had mobster mettle all along.

Though cast member Andrew Davoli once had a role on "The Sopranos," this film is a cheap, if unintentional, knock-off of the HBO series. There's nothing original about the father-son conflict that forms the core of the film, nor is there enough suspense and drama for "Knockaround Guys" to work as a pure gangster film. Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who previously collaborated on the hunky-bad-boys flick "Rounders," don't infuse the film with the irony or originality that might twist the genre into something else. Without that kind of spark, "Knockaround Guys" seems marked from the opening frame.

1 1/2 stars (out of 4)
"Knockaround Guys"
Directed by Brian Koppelman and Dan Levien; written by Koppelman and Levien; photographed by Tom Richmond; edited by David Moritz; production design by Lester Cohen; music by Clint Mansell; produced by Lawrence Bender. A New Line release; opens Friday, Oct. 11. Running time: 1:29. MPAA rating: R (violence, language and some drug use).
Matty -- Barry Pepper
Taylor Reese -- Vin Diesel
Johnny Marbles -- Seth Green
Chris Scarpa -- Andrew Davoli
Benny "Chains" Demaret -- Dennis Hopper
Teddy Deserve -- John Malkovich

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