Originally Published: 2002-10-06

Good-natured and unpretentious, Welcome to Collinwood is a toned-down caper pic that provides some entertaining moments but which ultimately fails to impress.
Based on Mario Monicelli's 1958 classic Big Deal on Madonna Street, Welcome to Collinwood centres on a motley crew of inefficient thieves who decide to stage the ultimate heist. When low-life Pero (Sam Rockwell) is released from prison, he arrives back in seedy Collinwood, Ohio and, using key information he stole from his cellmate, sets out to achieve his "bellini" (local slang for the ultimate criminal score). He rounds up a group of Collinwood's shadiest characters (played by William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, and Michael Jeter) and maps out the perfect heist. But the plans go awry when Pero's cellmate (Luis Guzman) is released and wants the bellini for himself.
Despite the fact that the film is produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney (the latter makes an extended cameo in the film), Welcome to Collinwood is marred by maudlin structure and too many slapstick pratfalls. That said, there's enough charm here to warm up the genre fan. For some real fun, rent Monicelli's film if you can find it (the Italian title is I Soliti Ignoti).

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