Elmore Leonard's works have made for a rather dicey round of film adaptations, and Killshot is the latest page-to-screen effort involving one of this author's books. For every rousing success like Get Shorty or 3:10 to Yuma, there's a downright dud like Be Cool or The Big Bounce. While many directors have yet to capture Leonard's literary lightning in a bottle, it certainly hasn't stopped them from trying. At the outset, Killshot seems a modest thriller with a decent cast, but its ill-fated attempts to inject some philosophical undertones into the mix makes it easy for viewers to get bored. Less gravitas and more fun would have helped.

Shakespeare in Love helmer John Madden leaves the Elizabethan era behind in order to focus on the criminal ilk of today. Armand Degas (Mickey Rourke) is a seasoned hitman known as the Blackbird, kept in the employ of some Toronto-based gangsters. After a job goes awry, Armand heads out to find himself, only to cross paths with hotheaded thief Richie Nix (Joseph Gorden-Levitt). Seeing signs of his own kid brother in the young thug, the accomplished killer decides to tag along as Richie tries to extort some cash from a real estate mogul. But this plan backfires as well, leaving behind two witnesses in the form of an estranged husband and wife (Thomas Jane and Diane Lane). While the couple is quickly swooped into federal custody, Armand and Richie plot to finish where they left off, going to murderous lengths to ensure a clean getaway.

When you strip Killshot down to its basic parts, you can see how it could have made one heck of a movie. Where Leonard is concerned, those who dabble in the licentious turn out to be vastly more interesting than the cookie-cutter good guys we're supposed to cheer on. Killshot provides the perfect arena for such a scenario, with Rourke's world-weary assassin taking center stage over Lane and Jane's characters. Madden begins the film with this approach, but his interest seems half-hearted at best. The problem? Not much is done to endear us to Rourke's Armand; a few ponderous scowls are the most insight we get into his character, yet we're supposed to glaze over the fact that he murders people for a living. Madden seems to realize this too and uses the second half to focus on the pursued couple. By this time, though, all we've seen of them consists of arbitrary bickering and infighting, arriving too late for an investment of time in their predicament. Stuck with one character we can't root for and two we don't want to root for, Killshot strands viewers, rendering them spectators of a shooting match whose outcome they probably couldn't care less about.

Even on the simplest levels of cinematic entertainment, Killshot leaves you feeling more than a little shortchanged. With such slipshod writing, the action is the only thing left to turn to for a few good thrills. But this also fails to pass muster, as the few gunfights fail to have any effect on the viewer's blood pressure. The story is more about the hunt than anything else, which is fine, except the interim between shootouts contains cliched observations which most cinephiles will tune out immediately. As far as the acting goes, most cast members seem competent. Rourke's recent resurgence with The Wrestler is likely what freed this film from its release-date limbo, and despite a chuckle-inducing attempt at a Native American accent, the man tries his best to elevate the lethargic script. Jane and Lane fare well, convincing enough in their work and thankfully never grating when it comes to playing through the couple's more strained moments. Gordon-Levitt, on the other hand, gives the most hilariously misguided attempt at being a bad guy since Tobey Maguire in The Good German. His Richie Nix comes across as more of an annoying punk than as the slightest bit threatening, and  Rosario Dawson suffers from being cast in the go-nowhere part of Richie's dim and doting gal pal.

I've yet to read Killshot on the written page, but if this film is any indication, Leonard has hardly been delivered big-screen justice. The potential for the characters to intrigue us with their quirks and for the story to engage us with its seedy atmosphere is there, but not a single ounce of it has been tapped into. Killshot ends up being mostly  by-the-books and ultimately harmless. Still, a thriller that could've been great but settles for mediocrity can be just as disappointing as one that's below average from beginning to end.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by The Weinstein Company and rated "R" for violence, language and brief nudity.)