Mobster troglodytes reluctantly enter the brave new world of high-tech fraud in This Thing Of Ours, but it takes a lot more than chatter about computerized theft and satellites to distinguish a shamelessly derivative mob movie. Packed with burly henchmen, goodfellas reciting Tarantino-esque anecdotes, profanity used as emphasis, and macho posturing, This Thing Of Ours centers on a mob-sponsored heist that's carried out largely through a satellite that drains minute amounts of money from a huge number of sources, resulting in a massive haul. The computer angle adds a much-needed novel element to a film that feels stitched together from superior mob movies, but co-screenwriter, co-star, and director Danny Provenzano runs into the same roadblock that has stymied countless cyber-minded filmmakers before him. For all the thematic possibilities brought about by the rise of computers, actual computer use remains staggeringly non-cinematic. Though it seems unfair to criticize the one element of This Thing Of Ours that doesn't feel like a fifth-generation Xerox of Martin Scorsese movies and The Sopranos, a heist pulled off through a computer chip in a satellite just doesn't have the visceral tension of even the most lazily staged conventional robbery. In keeping with mob-movie tradition, the corpses pile up as the film progresses, but since none of these hoodlums transcend flimsy stereotypes, the third-act betrayals barely register. The Godfather veteran James Caan–one of a number of mob-movie fixtures who add to the film's air of over-familiarity–pops up late in the proceedings to deliver a forgettable monologue. But his presence just serves as a depressing reminder of the gulf in quality between This Thing Of Ours and the infinitely superior movies that inspired it. Goodfellas, The Godfather, and Mean Streets bred scores of pale imitations like this. This Thing Of Ours' influence should begin and end with inspiring genre fans to go straight to the source and revisit Goodfellas, The Godfather, and Mean Streets.