Ex-cop Nick (Worthington) is only a couple of years into an excessively long prison sentence for stealing a giant diamond from a ruthless jewel magnate (Harris). But he manages to escape, positioning himself on a 21st-floor ledge above a busy Manhattan street. As the crowd gathers and cops (Banks and Burns) come to talk him down, Nick's brother Joey (Bell) and his bendy girlfriend Angie (Rodriguez) are breaking into a nearby building. Basically, it's Nick's last-ditch effort to clear his name.

Director Leth fills the screen with dizzy camera moves that capitalise on the vertiginous setting while playfully amping up the slinky heist action. Rodriguez even strips down into tiny pink undies at one point, more than a little gratuitously, to slither into a high security vault. Meanwhile, writer Fenjves assembles the script from a series of twists and turns, each of which is blatantly signposted in advance, while each character has just one salient characteristic.

There's not much an actor can do with this kind of mindless silliness, so there's quite a range of performance styles. Oddly, Worthington barely registers amid all of the shameless overacting (Mackie and Welliver as more cops) and scene-stealing (Harris). Banks and Burns both offer a bit of subtext to their characters. And Bell walks off with the film with a lively, engaging turn that seems to contain all of the personality in the entire cast.

Sometimes watching something this mindless can be good fun. We never have any doubt where it's going and we never feel even the slightest twinge of suspense. It also has that striking visual sheen that tells us a lot of money was spent. And while there are some hilariously deranged moments here and there, it does seem a little sad that the film has none of the gritty urgency of Leth's previous film, Ghosts of Cite Soleil. If you want your pulse to race faster, watch that instead.

themes, language, violence

21.Nov.11