From Larry Bishop, writer of 1996's universally reviled Trigger Happy (original title: Mad Dog Time), comes Underworld, an immensely irritating exercise in incoherent cinematic self-indulgence. Denis Leary stars as a brilliant, devious ex-con gangster who is not only psychotic but a psychiatrist. (He is not, however, a psychic.) Making good use of his extensive knowledge of Freud and Jung, Leary soon sets out to become a noirish city's next crime kingpin with the unwilling help of childhood friends Joe Mantegna and Bishop, who does double-duty as a mysterious gangster with the peculiar habit of flinging hundred-dollar bills in the air for no apparent reason. Bishop has generously given a colorful supporting cast—which includes Annabella Sciorra, Traci Lords and Abe Vigoda—exactly one character-defining quirk each. The plot of Underworld makes extraordinarily little sense, as all of its peripheral characters seem to exist solely so they can be shot at random by the three stars. Director Roger Christian gives the film a sleek, otherworldly visual sheen, but there's little he can do to cover up the script's lack of common sense, narrative clarity and substance. Silly, cloying and insufferably self-satisfied, Underworld is gorgeous to look at but sorely lacking in all other areas.