Linklater, a talented director with a real gift for the significant offhand moments when most people think nothing's happening, has a luxuriant eye for period detail, as he showed in the '70s milieu of Dazed and Confused. But he also seems to be relying on period authenticity because he doesn't have anything else to say. Aside from a few neat close-ups of pouring nitroglycerine, there's not much here that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid didn't pull off with a lot more panache. And despite a highly touted cast of young Hollywood guns--Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio--the four Newtons don't add up to a single Paul Newman.

Nevertheless, for die-hard bank-job fans there's another offbeat performance by Dwight Yoakam as a nervous safecracker; a coolly slimy turn by veteran character actor Luke Askew as a crooked bull; a bouncy mock-'20s score by bluegrass punks the Bad Livers; and a refreshingly minuscule body count. The Newton Boys is pleasant and instantly forgettable, but Richard Linklater is capable of much more than recycled Americana. Let's hope this OK holdup flick isn't the start of a holding pattern.