Two men from different ends of the social spectrum, decide to rid the aristocrats of their belongings.<BR>&nbsp;

Two men from different ends of the social spectrum, decide to rid the aristocrats of their belongings.

MaCleane's a gentleman, Plunkett's scum, and neither are very clean at the beginning of the film at least. After they escape from gaol, they bond and MaCleane at least gets to lead the good life again. Plunkette stakes him to play the gentleman amongst rich people spotting talent for late night hold-ups. The problem is that MaCleane's not very bright - but he is handsome, has the right accent and knows the right people. It's Plunkett, the former apothecary who knows his stuff and plans their exploits. MaCleane gets carried away with his image of himself as the gentleman highwaymen, he`s even stupid enough to fall in love - with Lady Rebecca - Liv Tyler - niece of their would-be nemesis... A lot of camp fun has gone into the creation of Plunkett and MaCleane, sending up the upper classes in design and attitude. And a good degree of tension's created in seeing them through their exploits... Robert Carlyle plays Plunkett, Jonny Lee Miller, MaCleane... It's a down and dirty film that insists on immersing you in the muck of life in the 18th century and that, I suppose is its richness... that and it`s sense of fun. But what it fails to do is develop any real sense of character, even in the comedic sense, so that once again we're left with the surface of a film without any depth. Not that we want much with a film like Plunkett and MaCleane. The fault lies with the screenplay and also with Jake Scott's direction which is quite alienating at times. He, like his father Ridley, comes from a background of directing commercials and in Jake's case video clips and the use of the ultra ultra close-up and contemporary music just doesn't seem to fit the material. But I don't want to get too down and dirty on Plunkett and MaCleane, because a lot of it is fun...David's comments: A clear case of overkill. Jake Scott knows how to make movies, but this tries too hard to impress the MTV generation. It's all over the place, the anachronisms grate (Tom Jones it's not), the music is simply terrible, and it's often so dark it's hard to work out what's going on. Carlyle and Miller look as if they're having fun; Tyler has trouble with her accent.