Intelligent and stylish, though very dated.

Mann ranks as one of hollywoods smartest directors never choosing to do the automatic popcorn blockbuster, but always making strong charachter pieces with real depth. This is of course dated now, but as in later films like Heat, Mann explores the very 3 dimensional sides to a criminal, never justifying thre actions but allowing for the fact they are people, and have other things on there mind other than that one last score. His style is evident and certain script bits and shots end up in Heat and collateral, but this is him on shoe-string budget compared to what he's aloud to play with now, and so the action is thin. James Cann gives a strong performance and the film oozes style. Worth checking out if you want to see where Mann trained his craft.