Plunkett and Macleane

**

Cast: Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Liv Tyler, Ken Stott, Michael Gambon

Director: Jake Scott

Rating: RP16

Reviewer: Greg Dixon

If you've ever wondered what Butch and Sundance might have got up to in Trainspotting while flouncing about Georgian costumes to techno dancebeats, clear the diary. Here it is.

Ostensibly the tale of two highwaymen and one love interest, this first feature from director Jake ("son of Ridley") Scott looks like it's been tossed in the genre-blender and given 102 minutes on high.

The resulting concoction, while richly designed, is a rather confusing pastiche of styles - the buddy movie, the costume drama, the 90s Britflick with attitude and a saleable soundtrack - and rarely satisfies.

The time is 1748 and, by a hamfisted plot convenience involving a wagon wheel and a prison door, Miller's Macleane (class without brains) and Carlyle's Plunkett (brains without class) negotiate a gentleman's agreement. It involves the former using his society contacts so the latter can start a move-to-America fund from the bulging purses of the wealthy.

Business around Hyde Park is damned good, and thanks to Macleane's charm, backed by Plunkett's wits, they create a legend: "The Gentleman Highwayman."

But money can't buy love. Fortunately, when the oh-so-daring duo hold up the coach of Lord Chief Justice Gibson (Gambon), his beautiful daughter Lady Rebecca (the relentlessly awful Tyler) is onboard to offer floppish Maclaine and the film some romantic assistance.

Unsurprisingly, this toff's true love has a rival. Gibson's chief hatchetman, Chance the Thief-Taker General, also fancies his chances with Becky - and at having Plunkett and Macleane swinging from the Tyburn Tree by film's end.

Certainly this is a fine film for a hanging, but this is also British-film-goes-to-Hollywood so you know there's never really a chance for Chance.

While Stott's relentlessly bullish Chance gives proceedings some much needed menace, the paint-by-numbers script was never heading down any new highways or byways.

Stand and deliver may have been the highwayman's calling card. Unfortunately for Scott, his first feature does little of either.