Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, David Mamet, and Neil Jordan combine their considerable talents to produce this sorry little mess of a film. While the plot has terrific potential to be a good comedy, very little actually works here. There were perhaps two occasions when I actually laughed, and the rest of the time I wore a wan smile waiting for the humor to begin in earnest. It never did. De Niro should stick to dramas, because he does not have, has never had, and never will have what it takes to be a good comedic actor. His primary contribution in "We're No Angels" is to mug for the camera to an extent that would make Lucille Ball embarrassed. Sean Penn is little better, using a wide-eyed, lost-little-boy expression throughout the film in an attempt to convey his character's wise-simpleton persona. Demi Moore can't act -- period. The characters played by Wallace Shawn and Ken Buhay are completely superfluous to the story, and so on. Ray McAnally and John C. Reilly provide nice turns as the prison warden and naive young monk, respectively, but they're not enough to save this production. This film is a low point in the careers of both screenwriter Mamet and director Jordan, and that is a bad combination. Rating: 4/10.
Review of We're No Angels
