A violent, uneven, mostly exciting thriller. If you can ignore the too-obvious preachiness, you'll be taken in by the entertainment value.

The pic opens at Kennedy Airport. Waiting to go through customs are our two Eastern-Eurotrash thugs, Emil (Karel Roden) and Oleg (Oleg Taktarov). Emil is the brains of the outfit, and Oleg, obsessed with American movies, seems to be along for the ride.

The purpose of their trip to the States is to retrieve a portion of the loot from a bank robbery that took place five years earlier, back in the old country. On their way to their former accomplice's apartment, Oleg rips off an expensive video camera, and starts documenting everything that happens to them.

They arrive at the apartment, but their former buddy is not pleased to see them, since he has already spent their share of the take. Emil is none too happy about this, and kills the partner and his wife--under the watchful eye of Oleg's video camera. There is, though, one more eye watching the horror unfold. Hidden in the bathroom is Daphne (Vera Farmiga), a friend of the late couple. She escapes from the perps, but just barely.

In addition to being a cold-blooded killer, Emil is also an accomplished arsonist. He uses this talent to torch the apartment, in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Coming in to investigate the fire is Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns), and to check out the murders is celeb homicide detective Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro). Flemming is well known to NYC media, and is friends with notorious tabloid TV show host Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer). Eddie is a good cop, and justifies all the media hype by noting that it gets him more resources to do his job. Jordy is unfamiliar with all the attention, but is becoming convinced that it couldn't hurt.

Emil and Oleg continue their crime spree, and the body count rises. All the while, Hawkins is playing it to his advantage. Emil even comes up with a bizarre scheme for getting caught, selling the video footage, and then pleading insanity. Their most unexpected crime gets captured on video, and this snuff film becomes a highlight of Hawkins' show.

The denouement is violent, and not always predictable.

Quite instructive, from a sociological point of view, is the critical reaction to this flick. The trades are even-handed, and the major newspaper critics appreciate it for what it is: flawed entertainment.

Other, less publicized media voices are extremely negative. In their zeal to demonstrate the "hypocrisy" inherent in the film condemning the public's fascination with violence, and portraying it on the screen at the same time, they betray their sophomoric understanding of media, and reliance on tired clichés. Certain critics used this twisted logic way back in 1930 to attack "All Quiet On The Western Front." They reasoned that you can't make an anti-war movie, since you would have to show war scenes, and this itself would glorify war. Thus, the public's blood lust and conscience are satisfied simultaneously.

Well, yes. That's entertainment. If these distressed critics want to change the world so badly, why are they wasting their time and ours by writing about film?

It's long past time to deny credibility to those forces eager to blame society's problems on art. What a pathetic red herring! Mankind's fascination with sex and violence goes back to the beginning of time. Did they blame school killings on The Iliad in 500 B.C.? Whoops. There were no school killings until very recently, but we always had visceral entertainment.

No one will dispute that Homer's classic is one of the greatest stories--and the most violent--of all time. Did that poem spawn 100 generations of sadistic criminals? Hardly.

Of course, nearly three generations deep into our paternalistic/socialistic culture, too many of us believe that they aren't qualified to raise their children, take care of themselves, or build any kind of life, without expert help. So, if the experts tell us the fault is with our entertainment, we must listen to them.

After all, if they can nearly transform a nation of pioneers and rugged individualists into a sorry band of whiners, victims, and parasites, they must have a lot going for them.

Send Mike e-mail