A FEW MORE LAUGHS WOULD'VE SCORED A KNOCKOUT.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

HERE'S A GREAT fish-out-of-water moment: A bunch of small-time New York junior goodfellas are in a Montana dive bar. Somebody puts a quarter in the jukebox, one of those generic Brooks & Dunn country-radio songs starts to play and, like robots, everybody gets off their stools and heads to the floor.

``You dance to this stuff?'' an incredulous Barry Pepper, playing the son of Brooklyn mob leader Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper), asks the barmaid.

``Knockaround Guys'' has a few of these moments, not to mention some enjoyably charismatic performances from the likes of Pepper, Vin Diesel, Seth Green and John Malkovich. The problem is that this is a fish-out-of- water movie that wants to be ``The Godfather,'' inserting an overwrought family drama into what should be a simple goomba goof. The movie takes itself too seriously and, as a result, it makes for only intermittent fun.

``Knockaround Guys'' begins with a flashback. As Marvin Gaye's ``Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)'' plays, we see Malkovich's mobster, Teddy, driving a 13-year-old Matty (Pepper's character) to a warehouse where he's holding the man who sent Benny to prison. Teddy hands Matty a loaded gun and tells him to pull the trigger. He can't, and ``Uncle'' Teddy says, ``This isn't the life for you.''

Problem is, now that Matty is a grown-up, he can't figure out what to do. To regular people, he and his pals are hoods. To the hoods, they're errand boys. So when an opportunity arises to pull a simple job for his dad, Matty jumps at the chance. He sends his pilot pal Marbles (Green) to Montana to pick up a bag of cash and return it to New York. Unfortunately, Marbles is described as ``half an idiot, and not the good half,'' and the plan goes south.

This sets up Matty and his buddies (which include a crowbar-wielding Diesel) flying to Montana and introducing themselves to the locals. The culture clash plays well and gives ``Knockaround Guys'' the sort of loosey-goosey feel that filmmakers Brian Koppelman and David Levien ably demonstrated with their first screenplay, the poker drama ``Rounders.''

It's when the filmmakers aspire to Greek tragedy that the movie stumbles. It's not a catastrophe; it's just that we've seen it all before - it's Kabuki theater and nobody's serving saki after the show to make you forget. Maybe Koppelman and Levien need to lower their ambitions. They've got the eye for detail and an ear for dialogue; now they just need to write something wholly original.

KNOCKAROUND GUYS - Two and one half stars

(R: violence, language and some drug use)

Starring: Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Seth Green, John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper.

Directors: Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Running time: 1 hr. 31 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: Fish-out-of-water junior goodfellas movie that should have stayed with offbeat humor instead of trying to be ``The Godfather.''

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Photo:

Seth Green, left, Barry Pepper, Andrew Davoli and Vin Diesel line up in ``Knockaround Guys.''