"Yeah, now that you mention it, I've always thought Pacino was kind of a showy little SOB too."

Don Corleone, meet Don Corleone.

The Score brings together Marlon Brando and Robert DeNiro, the two actors who brought The Godfather to life, and that's reason enough to see it. Add to the mix Edward Norton, easily one of the best actors of this or any generation, and you have the makings of a satisfying two hours at the movies.

This is a crime movie, boys and girls, but not like The Godfather, or any of the mob movies DeNiro has done so well with Martin Scorcese. Nor does it follow in the Quentin Tarantino tradition of hip patter and splattery violence. This is a movie about the nerds of the crime world. These are the guys who do their homework, plan meticulously, and go over the plan step by step until they could do it in their sleep. The guys who, when something inevitably goes wrong, respond not with blazing guns but with clearheaded logic.

Oh, we've got some of your standard crime movie elements. DeNiro is the aging professional, lured into one last job — The Big One! — before retirement. Norton is the eager young hothead who wants to play with the big boys. There's a woman in DeNiro's life who provides his motivation for quitting. In this case it's the sadly underused Angela Bassett. She does a fine job, but she's wasted in this role. SOMEBODY WRITE THIS WOMAN A MOVIE!

Bob was the Phone-a-Friend when Joe Pesci appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

The Score has some great moments. The heist these guys are trying to pull off — stealing a priceless scepter from the Montreal Customs House — is a complicated one, and it can be fun to watch the plan take shape, the pieces fall into place. One of my favorite scenes has Norton making a trade in a park with a couple of unlikely novice criminals. There are all kinds of ways this deal could go bad and it makes for some great suspense. Unfortunately, there are other moments when the caper feels like just what it looks like — a lot of work. Yes, we get it. DeNiro's character, Nick, is a methodical craftsman. He takes his time, he studies, he plans, he practices, he . . . zzzzz.

In contrast, the movie comes to life whenever Norton is on the screen. Of course, he has the showier role. His character has infiltrated the Customs House by masquerading as a mentally impaired janitor. Watching Norton smoothly juggle these two sides of his performance reminded me of his film debut in Primal Fear, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination. And the way the look in his eyes changes at a particular moment near the end — you'll know it when you see it — is brilliant. (See my list of five more Ed Norton movies, for a look back at his career so far.)

"Keep it down, will ya. We don't want to wake up Marlon."

And while we're on the subject of acting, the scenes where Brando, DeNiro and Norton are all together are a pleasure to watch. Brando in particular seems to be having a lot of fun in his relatively small but memorable role.

A word about the music, which is both good and bad. I found The Score's score to be mostly overpowering and annoying, kind of like a souped up version of what you might hear in the old Mission: Impossible TV series. But listen to the music that's playing whenever we're in Nick's jazz club. Someone had a good time finding songs whose lyrics were appropriate to the movie.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3 out of 4 bananas