Starring Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence Directed by Steve Oedekerk Rated R, with profanity, violence and partial nudity Running time 105 minutes We give this film a rating of 6 out of 10

(July 18, 1997) -- Nothing to Lose has "wannabe" written all over it: It wants to be 48 Hours; it wants to be Lethal Weapon; it wants to be Midnight Run.

But it's not. Actually, while the commercial model for this mixed-race buddy-action-comedy may be 48 Hours, the artistic source is a darker set of high-speed comedies: Martin Scorsese's After Hours or Jonathan Demme's Something Wild. As in those films, the hero of Nothing to Lose is a seemingly stable young businessman whose life goes careening out of control, taking him to unexpected places, to do uncharacteristic things.

Written and directed by Steve Oedekerk, Nothing to Lose has a handful of interesting ideas scattered throughout its overlong plot and a couple of energetic and inventive performances by its stars. But Oedekerk can't flesh out his comic ideas in interesting ways and winds up instead with contrived situations into which shtick is forcibly injected.

Tim Robbins plays Nick Beam, a successful advertising executive in L.A. who comes home early from work one day to find his wife in bed with his boss. So he gets in his large sport utility vehicle and begins driving aimlessly around L.A., in a funk of betrayal and despair.

His cloud is parted by a gun waving in front of his face: A carjacker wants his car and his wallet. Instead, Nick steps on the gas and executes a number of suicide maneuvers (including playing chicken with trucks and tossing his own wallet out the window), then locks the would-be robber (who has admitted that his gun is unloaded) into the car and drives to the middle of Arizona.

The robber, T-Paul (Martin Lawrence), is actually an electronics whiz who can't find a job and has been reduced to street crime to feed his family. He and Nick strike an uneasy truce to get back to L.A., since T-Paul still has money while Nick's went out the window with his wallet.

Nick is alarmed when T-Paul robs a convenience store to get them some more traveling cash -- but it triggers an idea. He will rob his two-timing boss, stealing a cache of cash he keeps barely guarded in a safe at the office.

As Oedekerk puts this odd couple through their virgin heist, however, he gets sidetracked trying to find places to put the jokes in. For example, there's an elaborate hardware store robbery ostensibly to steal flashlights for the big job. But it's really just an excuse for some droll comic interplay between Robbins and Lawrence about whose hold-up technique is scarier. It's a case of funny shtick that's strained because it feels so contrived.

There's also a running subplot about a pair of escaped criminals, played by John C. McGinley and Giancarlo Esposito, who are pursuing Nick and T-Paul. The actors both bring edgily funny mannerisms to these lowlifes, but Oedekerk's writing lets them down.

In the end, despite smart, vulnerable performances by Robbins and Lawrence, and a chemistry that sometimes crackles with wit, Nothing to Lose gives its actors very little to play with. Their charms can only carry them so far and that's not far enough.