"Knockaround Guys" meanders around the main plot of Matty Demaret (Barry Pepper) who is the offspring of a top notch crime boss Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper). Benny feels that his son just doesn't have the fortitude to fill in his father's legacy, brought on mostly from his uncle Teddy Deserve (John Malkovich). It's a common trend that mobster offspring's can't handle this line of work, so we should take this situation like a grain of salt, but Matty is still desperate in finding a job. The principal obstacle is not that he lacks credentials, but the main roadblock comes from his very own family who refrain him from finding work in other fields. So after much persuasion, Benny and Teddy finally give in and employ the young man in the field of transporting something and to avoid him from killing anybody.His mission is to transport cash from Spokane back to New York. The cash is if from another mob as some assurance to support Benny as he tries to repair some of the tribulations of his organization. One of Matty's best friends is a dim-witted pilot named Johnny Marbles (Seth Green) and Matty assigns him to fulfill the mission. However, on his way back to New York, Johnny has to stop at an airport for gas and avoid anyone from being suspicious, he foolishly ditches the loot. But when he gets back, the money is nowhere to be seen.Matty sends down his closest allies, Chris Scarpa (Andrew Davoli) and Taylor Reese (Vin Diesel) to join Johnny who has found out that the money is in some small hick town in Montana. Two caricatured skateboarder airline workers have got a hand on the cash and have gone on a bit of a spending spree with the cash. That is until the Sheriff Decker (Tom Noonan) who happens to be the father of one of the workers catches on and finds the hoards of cash and eventually issues a bounty to have Matty and his friends killed so that Decker and his deputy can split the cash for themselves.Matty's gang start using mobster methods in order to win back their cash, though Matty has to report everything back to his father. Fortunately, his uncle comes to the rescue. And the final result is that Matty and Teddy manage to make it in one piece and with the money. The twist in the end turns out that Teddy was the one responsible for stealing Benny's money.Okay so I gather this is a new and refreshing turn on the mobster movie genre in which mobster offspring's go on a mission in trying to get a hard lesson in what it is to be a mobster. But however there are still plenty of flaws that make this movie undesirable to say the least.The main flaw is that why the hell Benny would put his faith in trust in Matty's friend Johnny as he's a scrawny little recovering doper? This guy can't be trusted into doing the simplest tasks let alone transport cash from city to city. And since Benny is one of the most powerful men in New York, why didn't he use his resources and persuasion and find Matty a real job? Is that too hard to ask for? And then there's the whole debacle involving Uncle Teddy and his taking Benny's cash without his consent It seemed out because the twist did not come equipped without a reasonable angle to lead up to it. It was just too sudden. At first I thought Teddy was a decent individual, next thing you know he's stealing his brother's cash with no real motive at all. It was like it was padded on just to turn things around, but if fails. It makes the audience confused. There were other flaws, but I just wanted to pinpoint the main ones.The performances were pretty solid, but nothing really to write home about. John Malkovich was effective as the back-stabbing Uncle Teddy, but I can't see him play another mobster flick ever again. Seth Green was being his usual Seth Green self. The rest of the ensemble manage to hold their own, except when they start to get all philosophical and it was painful to see Vin Diesel be that way too. Stick to action films Big Vin! Granted this movie had its moments, but I really don't give that much high praise for it. The pacing was slow and was heavily flawed and the twists were not very convincing. Unless you like one of the performers in the cast, then I guess you will appreciate it, but if you're not a fan of any of the cast members, I would suggest you avoid this movie as a whole

The worst thing about Knockaround Guys is simply that it's a star vehicle for Barry Pepper, which is another way of saying it has so much unfulfilled potential. It nicely blends a couple of intriguing concepts, starts strong, maintains that momentum up until the very end and is pretty much a text book example of how to take a great actor and make him effective in a supporting role. Unfortunately, the main impression left by the film is that they could have done so much more with this story and puzzlement at an ending that is not only pulled out of a camel's ass in terms of plot but is out of step emotionally with the nearly everything that came before it.Matty Demaret (Barry Pepper) is the son of a Brooklyn mobster (Dennis Hopper). Tested as a child and found wanting by his equally criminal uncle (John Malkovich), Matty's been left on the fringes of his father's world until after one too many failed job interviews where his name and heritage were held against him, Matty begs for another chance to become a genuine gangster. Given the assignment of picking up a bag of money on the other side of the country and getting it back to Brookley, Matty rounds up 3 friends to help him. There's Chris Scarpa (Andrew Davoli), another mobster's son burdened with an infamous name in legitimate society; Johnny Marbles (Seth Green), a ex-junkie and a pilot; and Taylor Reese (Vin Diesel), the only real hardcase of the group but whose Jewish heritage keeps him almost as much on the outside of the mob as Matty.Marbles picks up the bag but manages to lose it in the Montana town of Wibaux. That brings the other three friends running because if they don't get it back, a world of hurt will fall on everyone from Matty's dad on down. Things get more complicated when the bag falls into the hands of the corrupt local sheriff (Tom Noonan) and he decides that he's more than tough enough to take on 4 wannabe wiseguys. When Matty's uncle and his crew of killers come to town, however, things get very dark for the sheriff, Matty and everyone involved.At the heart of this story are two really good ideas. There's the contrast between Matty, someone not cut out for a life of crime but can't seem to escape it, and Taylor, someone perfectly suited to be a thug but who is arbitrarily excluded from that life. And then there's the switch in locales to Montana, where Matty goes from being a gangster's son with all that legacy weighing him down to being just another guy in a crisis where no one gives a damn who his father is. When Knockaround Guys focuses on those things, it's quite enjoyable.What's ultimately unfulfilling, though, is that the movie spends too much time getting sidetracked with distractions. Both the Marbles and Scarpa characters should have been eliminated from the script. The former is nothing more than a plot device played with too much humor by Seth Green and the latter is just a mirror of Matty's situation and every second spent retelling Matty's story with another character just takes time away from the Matty-Taylor dynamic. Those two characters are the heart of Knockaround Guys and while getting rid of the other two would have required some rejiggering, the more the story revolves around Matty and Taylor, the better it would have been.Then there's the ending, which has two major problems.1. It's really stupid.2. It pulls out a twist that is not just unnecessary, dramatically unsupported and overreaching, it spoils the film's central character arc. This story is first about Matty's struggle over whether or not to be a gangster and this twist forces a resolution on him instead of it being a natural product of the character evolution.I liked Knockaround Guys right up until the end. John Malkovich is fun and it's always fascinating to see stars like Vin Diesel before they get their big break, but a combination of neglected possibilities and a trying-too-hard conclusion keeps me from recommending it. If it happens to be on when you've got nothing better to do, it's an okay time waster. Just don't go out of your way to watch it.

I loved this film. It has a little bit of everything.It seemed to portray the characters as believable and real. Most of the Gangster style flicks always have a thick romantic plot line,where this film portrayed the guys as just regular Joes.Sure, there were women in the film, but there was no "guy get's the girl" type ending. My favorite scene was the bar/fight scene and the music playing in the background, was, ROMEO'S TUNE by :Steve Forbert.This was pure genius.I watch a lot of movies,and this one has stayed with me. It is definitely worth watching, at the least.I purchased it, myself. The soundtrack is mostly cheesy, but there is some good old stuff on it.I think that is where they cut some of their budget, for the guy referring to it as a low-budg pic. I don't happen to care what the budget of a movie is. IMO, the studios w/the big budgets spiy out more crap than all Indies out there.

I rented some movies this weekend and "Knockaround Guys" was a risk rent I call it, I never heard of it and wasn't that interested. But I mean, what a promising cast: Seth Green, John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper, and Vin Deisel. Being here on IMDb, I noticed that there were a few put downs on the film, mostly feeling that there was a miscast. Especially with John, in some ways I agree, he just couldn't do a good Italian accent or wasn't too threatening. But what can I say? I love the guy too much! Being a more update mob movie taking place into today's society, I thought it was very interesting. Matty is the son of a very famous mobster, causing him to loose job opportunity after job opportunity because of his name. When he finally decides to join the family business with his friends, they have a little stumble transferring money that is owed to an under boss that can cause Matty's father's life. Together he and his friends must get that money back in the best way possible: The Godfather's way of doing things! This was a great action flick and no, it's not really a decent mob movie. But I did enjoy it, maybe I was just in a good mood, but I feel that this is a pretty under rated film that should be given another chance. We'll just have to forgive John, you know he does his best! 9/10