Palookaville

Sep 7, 1995

1h 32m

★ 5.8

One foot in the door. The other one in the gutter.

Overview

Jerry and his two pals, Russ and Syd, are just looking for some easy money to help them break out of their nowhere lives in their nowhere town. Despite a bungled jewelry store heist which exposes their incompetence as criminals, a fateful event (and an old black-and-white film) convinces them that they can pull off an armored-truck robbery. While they are busy plotting their caper, their dysfunctional families spin out of control, all around them.

Genres

Comedy

Crime

Production Companies

Redwave Films

Playhouse International Pictures

Public Television Playhouse Inc.

Palookaville Trailers

Cast

Sid Dunleavy

William Forsythe

Russell Pataki

Vincent Gallo

Jerry

Adam Trese

Ed the Cop

Gareth Williams

Betty, Jerry's Wife

LisaGay Hamilton

Enid

Bridgit Ryan

Laurie, Russell's Girlfriend

Kim Dickens

Mother

Suzanne Shepherd

Chris

Nicole Burdette

Ralph

Robert LuPone

Mr. Kott, Money Truck Driver

Sam Coppola

June

Frances McDormand

A crew of young, small-time crooks screws up. Ripping off a shipping container of Chinese silk for a Rasta gang, they also come away with two and a half kilos of heroin belonging to the Latvian mafia. A friend of theirs, Jens (Kim Bodnia), a plainclothes cop, tries to mediate, but instead all barrels are turned on him. The Latvians and the Chinese want him. Jamaican dope growers, ice-cold Serbian heroin dealers and Polish human smugglers are gunning for him. And to top it all off, he also has to dodge his fellow officers, backed by the scuba corps and elite-forces soldiers, to save his young friends.

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