Reel critics

The two godfathers together at last in one movie. Can it get any

better than this?

Well, I certainly hope so.

In “The Score” Robert De Niro plays Nick, a jewel thief and safe

cracker, who in the opening credits shows what a true professional he is.

Marlon Brando plays Max, his fence, who wants Nick to do one more job.

Edward Norton plays Jack who has gotten a job as a janitor at the

Montreal Customs House by pretending to be mentally impaired. Their goal

is to steal a French scepter inside the customs house that is worth

millions.

With a movie like this you naturally expect things not to go as

planned. It doesn’t disappoint in that area. Where it does go wrong is in

an inadequate screenplay that doesn’t generate any kind of suspense at

all. While it is certainly satisfying seeing a movie that doesn’t use car

crashes or special effects to carry the story along, in a movie about a

heist the key word should be suspense. I didn’t feel any kind of tension

or edge-of-your-seat nerves you should expect from this kind of film. It

was as if the writers decided to take you on a roller coaster but left

out the turns and the sudden drops. The final job at the customs house

makes you feel like you have been there before, know what was going to

happen and couldn’t care less.De Niro is incapable of giving a bad

performance. He can take any character and shape him into his own. He and

Angela Bassett, who plays his girlfriend, are the only convincing roles

in the movie. Brando gives a very poor imitation of Sidney Greenstreet.

He should have watched “The Maltese Falcon” before taking on this role.

Norton, even with his considerable talent, needs to learn the old axiom

that less is more.

Unfortunately, even De Niro can’t salvage a weak script with virtually

no support from his fellow actors.

* Larry Nolte, 59, is a retired United Airlines employee.