2001, 2 hrs 5 min., Rated R for language.�Dir: Frank Oz. Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett.

The Score is a quiet caper flick, with a dark, sleek look but not all that exciting and a bit dull at times. It's not your typical summer fare, but worth it if only for having three of the best actors of their respective generations on screen together. Actually, only very briefly do Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Ed Norton appear in the same room.

Taking place mostly in Montreal, full of French-speaking citizens like their cheese-eating surrender monkey former landlord, it's an old area that deserves to look better on film than Oz portrays. It's a beautiful town, but you couldn't tell that from watching The Score.

One of the problems with this one is that it isn't original, and is predictable. De Niro plays a safecracker thief out for one more job that would allow him to retire and join the real world, but naturally the score has to be substantial and difficult. Advice to crooks: Don't go for the really big score at the end of your career. Use it somewhere in the middle, and save the final job for something simple and rewarding to go out on top; the big ones are nothing but trouble. Knock off something easy, then go work at Subway and live off the winnings (or in De Niro's case, keep at your successful Jazz club business).

Unfortunately, the film's slow-going for the most part, not really picking up any steam until the end, and even then there aren't any histrionics worth talking about afterwards. A little long at just over two hours, director Frank Oz (Bowfinger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) could have easily shortened the film a good bit. Some of the loops thrown into the coaster don't really need to be there or add anything to the story (a few seem to be just to give Brando more to do than his bit part calls for).

The only character worth mentioning is De Niro's girlfriend, played by Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back). I don't find her as sexy as others, but she is sweet and a friendly presence in her little role.

So, to sum up, The Score had some interesting parts but otherwise plodded along. The marquee is impressive, featuring three great actors, but that's only a slight recommendation for the film. Could have trimmed 15 minutes easily, and while it thinks it's original, in reality it's a very predictable turn of events, not to mention the most tired of plots.

The verdict:

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