At the beginning it’s mostly fancy transitions and strings and choreography and facades and props. Past their yelling, the characters are pretty shallow. The dialogue is stale and banal. Jack Nicholson yells pretty good but otherwise he’s a bit sleepy and boring. Danny Devito’s character is a boring macho archetype – it’s not surprising that he directed it, considering how much he indulges his character with the camera.

The close-ups and the panning shots and the transitions show a lot of intention, but it’s more fun to make a drinking game out of the kinda corny tactics than it is to enjoy them. Skip this for The Irishman or The Shining, or even It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.