Any movie critic can tell you what a newly released DVD is about & spoil the ending for you. I plan to ruin your entire DVD watching experience by highlighting it's flaws, it's missteps, it's examples of poor editing, casting, and point out the ridiculous holes in the plot. If you're cynical, you'll appreciate this valuable service I'm providing. If you're easily impressed, then don't say I didn't warn you.  - Mean Jean

As uncomfortable as I am liking enough to recommend a movie where you are supposed to root for bad guys, this is such a clever riot of a movie I'll do so anyway. Well, up until the copycat ending, that is.

Collinwood follows the rollercoaster thrill ride® chase of the head bad guy Whatshisface's dream robbery job: knocking off a jeweler's safe, made accessible by an unscrupulous mason's inferior wall construction, which separates it from the vacant apartment next door. His dream of cracking it went unrealized, because of his arrest for murder two days later. When the mason meets W in prison, he inexplicably divulges the details of the safe to him for no good reason, starting off the chase.

Everyone living in the tough, poor & crime ridden neighborhood has some dream crime they are working hard on pulling off, all ideas are fiercely guarded & planned, but most will never come to anything. Any new idea for a crime, promising unheard of wealth, leads desperate men to devote themselves further to their illegal lifestyles, lulling themselves into believing that one great crime, rather than years of education & hard work, will be their exit from the impoverished lives they all lead. 

Although Whatshisface is detested by everyone in the neighborhood, the lure of his one big job proves irresistible to a veritable army of criminals, much to W's fury. W had envisioned himself as the lone player in the robbery and sole beneficiary. So while W is incarcerated all the criminals busy themselves working out a funnily complicated plot to steal the jewelry or cash or whatever the safe holds. As they plan, they dream aloud their poignant dreams, revealing that all of their sad fantasies center on getting out of C'wood & giving their family a better life somewhere else. These aren't extravagant dreams of Leer Jets and private chefs, they are dreams of being able to live like middle class people in a safer neighborhood.

But before you let yourself get sucked into misplaced sympathy for these amusing criminals, the middle class lifestyle can be anyone's for the taking-stay in school & get a job & work hard. People knocking off the safes of hard working tax payers is only funny & interesting in a movie. Crime rarely sets people free from economic constraints, it usually compounds problems. Anyway, with today's messed up Injustice System, little crimes usually end up getting humongous, 'never see your family again' type mandatory sentences. But enough moralizing! This is a movie that will make you laugh at the many surreally funny moments, such as at the loan shark nuns. 

One criminal after another signs on to the 'don't tell anyone about this secret' plan, as the details of the plan race around the criminal world. The finite amount in the safe is going to have to stretch to include everyone in the take. Then W. gets released. He quickly demonstrates why he is so hated in the neighborhood, publicly taking out his rage on his girlfriend and the guy who was supposed to do his time for him so he could be the criminal mastermind behind the heist. He alienates himself from the players who already have the plan in place, and merrily charges down the road to his death just like a character in a Roadrunner cartoon. The actual commission of the crime is such a blatant rip off of the crime sequence of "Small Time Crooks" that this clever, original movie comes crash landing to the ground. What originally showed such promise & funny newness ends on someone else's idea, making this a certifiable Hollywood movie, offering nothing new for the audience in the ending. Up until this point, however, this movie is incredibly funny, well worth watching.

I recommend you rent this or buy it used, depending on how forgiving you are of movies with obvious rip off endings.

(click here to buy the DVD)