Double Whammy

You like quirky? With its offbeat situations and colorful characters, Tom DiCillo's Double Whammy is quirky to beat the band. But despite a game cast, the strain to be cool and idiosyncratic here ultimately tries viewer patience. Denis Leary stars as Ray Pluto, a hapless cop who becomes a nationwide laughingstock after his bad back prevents him from stopping a crazed gunman (worse, an eight-year-old, who manages to get the incapacitated Pluto's gun, kills the shooter and is proclaimed a hero). Meanwhile, the super in Pluto's building (P. T. Anderson veteran Luis Guzman) is at odds with his rebellious teenage daughter who hires two thugs to kill him. And in a third ring of this circus, Pluto's inexplicably red zoot-suited neighbors toil on a Tarantino-esque screenplay. While there are good performances (Steve Buscemi also appears as Pluto's partner, who has some unresolved issues of his own) and some funny moments, DiCillo (whose Living in Oblivion is the definitive portrait of low-budget filmmaking) kills the comedy with tone-shifting scenes of graphic violence. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)