Dirty Deeds

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

If you're going to name a movie after an AC/DC song it had better rock, eh mate?

Fortunately Dirty Deeds does, with its tale of seedy, sleazy, sixties Sydney - a gangster comedy of violence, standover tactics, the American Mafia coming to town and love blooming among the one-armed bandits.

If this historic angle on what's been an endless run of crime flicks from across the Tasman isn't quite as funny or as gritty as it thinks it is, then - mostly care of its performances - it's still energetic and predictably full of larrikin humour.

Its drawbacks are a long-drawn-out ending in which the film heads to the Outback, and a period-production design which competes with the frequent gunfire in high-decibel levels. There are times when, if this film looked any more like 60s Australiana, it would be Skippy in a Beatles wig humming Friday on My Mind.

However, with that come the incidental pleasures of seeing some venerable Holdens and Falcons in a car chase. And in its own way it also celebrates the notion that crime is a cornerstone on which that great nation to our west was built.

Barry (Brown, who's hilarious) is certainly one of the Sydney underworld's more upstanding members. He's the uncrowned king of the Cross with wife Sharon (Collette) at home, mistress Margaret (Kestie Morassi) at one of his bars, a loyal crew who are handy with a sledgehammer should anyone set up pokie machines in competition, and a bent copper (Neill) under his thumb. Bazza's a nice bloke, though, and Shazza loves him, with some reservations.

That's why, when his nephew Darcy comes back from Vietnam, he hooks him up with some work. And when the American Mafia - in the form of Tony (Goodman) and Sal (Felix Williamson) - come to make him an offer he can't refuse, he gives them a warm reception.

By then, of course, Dirty Deeds is on a highway to hell. But if it doesn't end as convincingly as it starts, it's still a fun romp through the bad old days.

Cast: Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, Sam Neill, John Goodman, Sam Worthington

Director: David Caesar

Rating: R16 (violence, offensive language)

Running time: 99m

Screening: Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas from Thursday