大象传媒

Revenge is a dish served once too often in Romanzo Criminale, an Italian crime epic that runs out of appeal well before it runs out of ammo. Based on a bestseller, in turn inspired by true events, it turns the years into minutes and vice versa, as one gangster pops another for reasons that grow increasingly hard to keep up with or care about. Occasionally there's a break in the cycle of violence for a spot of espresso-quaffing; you may need a few cups yourself in order to go the distance.

The trawl begins in the 60s with three joy-riding juvenile delinquents who grow into hardened career crims: Lebanese (Pierfrancesco Favino), Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart) and Dandy (Claudio Santamaria). Angling for complete control of the underworld in 1970s Rome, they tangle with terrorists, the Mafia, bent cops, the Secret Service and the odd business-minded prostitute. As the decades wear on, alliances crumble, loyalties clash and betrayals are avenged with hot lead.

"CHARMLESS CHARACTERS"

Running to (an unjustified) 152 minutes, Michele Placido's film clearly aspires to grander things than generic gunplay. A sense of historical sweep is underscored by the use of archive TV reports on everything from the bombing of Bologna station to Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph. But the picture's ambition is thwarted by numbing repetition (you're never more than two scenes away from the next ruthless assassination) and a fatal lack of rooting interest in the characters, who don't have the charm to go with their cheekbones. To draw comparisons with a true gangster classic like The Godfather or GoodFellas would be simply Criminale.