Riff Raff

Like a pool shark, Montiel reveals his intentions only toward the end. The gamble doesn’t pay off as well as it could, but at least “Riff Raff” gets smarter as it goes on.

Murray and Harris are poetry in motion as an acting team, while Coolidge is kooky to the max, Union is the side-eye queen and Davidson is a deadly dorky foil for Murray. There’s no learning, no hugs, just hilarity and a cast of favorites.

...Harris and Murray are such reliably engaging screen presences that they provide a few glimmers of entertainment, provided you’re able to set aside the movie’s practically all-encompassing repulsiveness.

How do you cram a cast of A-listers, led by Bill Murray, Jennifer Coolidge and Pete Davidson, into a crime caper so laugh deprived that calling it a comedy qualifies as false advertising? Here’s your answer. And it’s a crying shame.

There doesn’t seem to be a single original bone in this film’s body.

Murray’s Boston accent wobbles a bit from time to time, but he and Davidson are hilarious and yet somehow suitably menacing as a couple of killers who will shoot you dead just because you happened to hear their names.

Coming off looking like a script pulled from the Tarantino knock-off bin last drawn from in the early 00s, Riff Raff is a curious feature. It functions as a crime caper and a family comedy-drama, and the tone is, unsurprisingly, all over the place.

Riff Raff would've been more interesting if this comedy/drama focused on the mismatched criminals played by Bill Murray and Pete Davidson, who have the best scenes in the movie. The dysfunctional blended family at the center of the story is a dull drag.

What makes the film shine is that nearly none of the actors cast play against type. Dito Montiel knows the tools he is working with and uses them deftly.

Crime doesn’t pay, but this comedy does, thanks to a shady bunch led by Jennifer Coolidge and Bill Murray.