“Welcome to Collinwood” is one of those movies which has a great cast but that’s all it really has. It has talented actors with nothing to do but try to be funny.

It’s one of those little indie movies that are supposed to be quirky with these weird and intriguing characters and also an incredibly funny plot. But “Collinwood” doesn’t really have either.

Produced by two of Hollywood’s most talented commodities, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, you’d think they would be able to make a really good movie. Soderbergh has directed “Traffic” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” which featured Clooney. But they try too hard to make something of this crime comedy movie.

Set in the streets of Collinwood, a working class neighborhood on Cleveland’s east side, it follows a group of down-and-out working losers as they plan a robbery that will be their Bellini (the ultimate con job).

When petty thief Cosimo (Luis Guzman) learns about a Bellini from a lifer during a stint in jail, he enlists the help of his girlfriend (Patricia Clarkson) to find a Mullinski willing to ‘fess up to Cosimo’s crime – and go to prison in his place – in exchange for $15,000.

Led by Pero (Sam Rockwell), an egotistical boxer who can’t even win against a priest, he comes up with a plan to get the inside info on the job from Cosimo, and the group assembles itself.

The wacky crew consists of Riley (William H. Macy), a single father with an infant on his hands who needs a thousand bucks to spring his wife from jail; Leon (Isaiah Washington), who desperately wants to secure a better life for his sister; Basil (Andrew Davoli), an Italian gigolo with many caring mothers back at the convent; and Toto (the late Michael Jeter), a thief way past his prime who’s got nothing but time on his hands.

The quintet lands in some trouble when learn their Bellini is in a safe, and here Clooney make a very funny cameo as a veteran safecracker who teaches the gang how to break into a jeweler’s safe.

What’s wrong with this movie is that it’s meant to be funny, but the jokes don’t always work. What works for the movie is that it was filmed on location. The rundown buildings bring a small amount of dignity to the story and its characters.

DVD Extras

It features “Welcome to Collinwood: Uncensored,” a behind-the-scenes peek at the cast as they play around. Rockwell uses a water bottle as a microphone and interviews everyone. It also includes some excerpts from the film’s terminology – Definitions and Etymologies – that define in text what some of the picture’s slang means.

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