a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A motley band of desperate, unemployed, penny-less characters desire to rob Pawn Dealer Jack Warden's safe while he's off to visit his mother. Sutherland at first shrugs robbing his boss(for the time being;his job as Pawn shop security is threatened when Warden mentions a desire for an alarm system), but has motivation when he sees he'll soon be unemployed again(..and losing his cable box only makes matters worse). Warden is the "bad guy" of the film, a penny-pincher who stiff those seeking a much larger sum than he's willing to pay for their valuables. The thing is though, as Warden tries to tell the film's characters as they come in to sell stolen merchandise or valuables from their own homes, that business is business and turning a profit is essential. The flick clearly exposes the unemployment hike and immigration pressure in early 80's Reagan era.Sean Penn(..tries on a Southern accent to give his character flavor and fails miserably) plays a wannabee musician, often seen blowing on his harmonica or clanging away on a guitar in Warden's pawn shop he had to give away, who is Trinidad Silva's thieving partner as they often commit petty crimes such as stealing car radios from BMWs only to get close to nothing from Warden for them. Penn takes a personal interest in Silva's sister Tasia Valenza, courting her when dear brother's back is turned(Silva is overprotective and wishes to pair Tasia with a bartender of his own choosing from Mexico). You have Wallace(MY DINNER WITH ANDRE)Shawn as an always-hungry pauper who is friends with Sutherland and hangs around the pawn shop playing chess all day(it's rare you don't see Shawn eating something which is a gag the film plays to the hilt). There's Larry Riley as a would-be pimp stuck with the baby of a former "employee". Following the cast of supposed safe crackers are Christine Baranski as a meter-lady who writes the tickets for those who stay parked too long on the side-walk who likes to moonlight as a slut and Charlayne Woodard as an always-unemployed maid who hooks up with Riley.All that said, this is a forgettable, minor film from critically acclaimed director Louis Malle with a decent cast not having that much to do. It supposed to play as a bumbling-thieves comedy, but seems to want to take a detour into character study. I'd say unless you just wish to see the film for it's cast, this is a very skippable film which ends with the characters looking quite silly at staging such an attempt towards cracking the safe. They still face what we saw them against at the start of the film. After watching the film, I just felt that this flick wastes our time.

"Crackers" falls into that category of films that have failed quite inexplicably - helmed by a great director, starring a cast of assured veterans (Sutherland, Warden) and talented newcomers (Penn, Baranksi) and written by the screenwriter of one of the best films of the eighties ("Cutter's Way"). Then why is it that no one talks about the film anymore? Firstly, the film has been made far more successfully on two other occasions in the guise of "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and then recently "Welcome To Collinwood". Secondly, Malle must have been going through an eighties dance music phase when he made the film because it is effectively ruined by an utterly dated and abysmal soundtrack - with a proper film score it would have been a far better film. Lastly, Sutherland gives what is probably his most broad and embarrassingly unfunny performance in the lead, subsequently hindering any sympathy for his character. There are other qualms (what exactly is the purpose of Baranski's character, lets throw in a slut for some wacky comedy?) but it is nevertheless still quite watchable. Shawn, who would collaborate with Malle on the acclaimed films "My Dinner With Andre" and "Vanya on 42nd Street", is very funny as the forever-eating Turtle and Penn is amusing in a dumb hood role he would practically resume for "We're No Angels", another film with a great director, writer and cast that would be a critical and commercial failure. No film made by Malle could be truly bad, and this isn't, but it is neither as quirky or funny as it wants to be.

The Watergate break-in ran smoother than the operation executed in this flick. Of course, to get an inexperienced crew from all walks of street life (a family pimp, a musical hick and his vato, a hungry bum, and a chief conspirator with a fantasy-fulfilling meter maid girlfriend) to work together to get a pawn dealer's suspected lode from a locked safe and not have the police bust you is dicey if the musical hick had not built the store alarm with the skill level he had to operate nitroglycerin on a building beam as if he were lighting a Christmas tree. This is why his vato doesn't want him near his sister as well as it being his sister. It is somewhat more understandable than the family pimp falling for a maid who pursues a chance at prostitution and is dissuaded by the pimp. "Crackers" is a business sector misadventure set in a not-so-bustling city .

I was amused watching the stellar cast waltz through this film. Any movie with supporting characters including a traffic cop prostitute and a pimp who carries a baby, will catch my attention.Although released in 1984, this film has a 70s feel to it that I enjoyed.