Mad Dog Time

Writer-director Larry Bishop must have called in every favor he was ever owed in order to get these famous players to participate.

"Mad Dog Time" apparently wants to be a spoof of '30s gangster flicks - the kind with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart - but with a modern, Quentin Tarantino-style sensibility by way of "The Usual Suspects." With some Old West, quick-draw gunplay thrown in for good measure.

This is the kind of movie that tells you how cool it is by using Rat Pack songs on the soundtrack (sung by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., of course). And by casting Mr. Detatched Bemusement himself, Jeff Goldblum, as a hipper-than-thou hit man.

Goldblum has the central role as Mick, who works for big-time mobster Vic (Richard Dreyfuss, delivering the film's most sympathetic performance).

Vic has just been released from "the loony bin" and he's making moves to regain his empire, favoring a new hired gun in town named Nick (Bishop), who wears sunglasses day and night.

It's no coincidence that these characters have names like Mick, Vic and Nick. It allows Vic's right-hand man, Ben London (Byrne, in an uncharacteristically goofy performance), to use them as oh-so-clever wordplay . . . liberally laced with profanity, of course.

It seems that Vic wants Mick dead, because Mick has been fooling around with Vic's girlfriend Grace (Diane Lane). But Mick is confident he won't be killed as long as he is the only one who knows where Grace is. (Henry Silva, as one of Vic's henchmen, notes that Mick "has a Grace up his sleeve." Har-de-har-har.)

Meanwhile, Mick has also started making time with an old flame - Grace's sister Rita (Ellen Barkin). And there are hints that Vic may not be as crazy as he appears. On the other hand, he might have a death wish.

But all of this is simply diversionary, until the various cast members can get around to killing each other. The most elaborate "comic" deaths are saved for Byrne, Hines and Reynolds. But there's no context or motivation. Why does Byrne's character break up Vic's coming-home party by interrupting Paul Anka's "My Way" with a suicidal rendition of his own? Why does Hines' character have to be killed? And what the heck does Reynolds' character have to do with anything?

For that matter, why does Dreyfuss make his big entrance unshaven and disheveled, wearing pajamas and a bathrobe, as a red carpet is rolled out for him?

Bishop the writer is quite profane, but at least Bishop the director keeps the violence from escalating to Tarentino levels of gore. But none of this is funny or witty enough to sustain the effort.

He also strives for an occasional surrealistic quality, though it's too vague to have any depth of meaning.

Worse, a feeling of desperation sets in when people like Joey Bishop (the filmmakers' father), Richard Pryor, Rob Reiner, Billy Idol, Michael J. Pollard and Angie Everhart show up for brief bits and find themselves with nothing to do.

They should have stayed home. And so should you.

"Mad Dog Time" is rated R for violence, sex, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.