AFTER THE SUNSET

New Line Pictures

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody
Harrelson, Don Cheadle

Directed by: Brett Ratner

Some movies get by on grit, some on charm, some on special effects.

This movie makes it largely on the basis of the smarmy hick combination of Woody Harrelson, but almost as much on the cleavage of Salma Hayek (she seemingly wears less and less and for shorter and shorter periods in each succeeding scene.

The common factor between these two is Pirece Brosnan, who plays Max, a "retired" jewel thief. Both of the other two want him badly, but for markedly different reasons; Stan Lloyd (Harrelson) is an FBI agent seeking to both settle a score and redeem himself for the success of Max's previous heist; Hayek plays Lola, Max's partner in love and crime who's fallen as much for the straight life and desperately hopes Max will do the same.

All this comes to a head in the Bahamas, where a visiting mega-liner is carrying a gem exhibition that includes the last major diamond Max has not added to his collection. Add Don Cheadle as an "altruistic" gangster who's also after the diamond and Naomie Harris as an ambitious yet strangely carefree local cop, stir in a few beach scenes and shots of the peach grandiosity that is the Atlantis Hotel & Casino, and you have one fizzy caper cocktail.

It's a temptation now common to nearly all Hollywood types and director Ratner (Rush Hour) and screenwriters Craig Rosenberg and Paul Zybzewski can't resist a gay subtext: we see Max and Stanley out on a fishing boat(no credible explanantion about why a thief would feel comfortable on a boat with the cop who shot him), dabbing suntan lotion on each other's backs and later sharing a hotel room bed (Max, thrown out by Lola, seeks refuge in Stanley's hotel suite).

Something has to be wrong when a male lead has more chemistry with his male co-star than with his [beautiful] female lead. For all their smooching, Brosnan and Hayek do not convince for a second that they are, or even could be an item.

Relative newcomer Harris (28 Days Later) fares much better alongside Harrelson, but after an admittedly rushed coupling, their relationship virtually disappears behind the film's denouement. Cheadle is demonstrably on cruise control, doling out only as much expression as is necessary to get his character through the scenes.

Still Ratner, cutting and mixing like a hotel bartender on show, imbues the whole process with so much fun that you don't really mind taking leave of your senses, if just for a while. Like those umbrella drinks that Max eventually succumbs to, this movie goes down light and sweet, but investing too much faith in it may leave you with a hangover.

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