Albino Alligator

Deliberate sacrifice for deliberate gain. Here’s yet another heist-gone-wrong movie, this time the city is New Orleans. The set-up is that dim-witted Dova (Dillon), his smarter brother Milo (Sinise) and loose cannon Law (William Fichtner) botch a break-in, then drive their getaway car through a stake-out and unknowingly squash three special police agents tracking a big arms dealer. The team hide in a bar run by M. Emmett Walsh, where they hold hostage the usual cross-section of society. In keeping with the current trend, a pushy female TV reporter shows up to make things more interesting.

This is the directorial debut of Spacey, who succeeded in attracting good character actors and certainly gets a more out of the formula script than might be expected. The strange title - unlike Reservoir Dogs - does at least get explained, which turns out to stack the cards for a nasty twist that shows how far people will go to come out of a blood bath breathing...

Amanda Lee