Starring Brian Brown, Sam Neill, Toni Collette, Kestie Morassi, Sam Worthington, John Goodman and Felix Williamson. Rated MA.

He's the man. The man you don't want to cross, especially if you live on the seedier side of 1969 Sydney.

Barry Ryan heads up a tidy little outfit running women, books and pokies across the whole city, pulling in the dosh by the truck load - literally.

If you do cross Barry by, lets say, allowing some rival outfit to put their poker machines in your club, well, you should expect a little visit from the man himself, with a 5lb sledge, for a spot of knee surgery.

With a small team of loyal hoods and bent cops on his side, Barry lives a comfortable life ruled by hard work, hard graft and an even harder missus - Sharon (Toni Collette).

Darcy is Barry's nephew, recently returned from a tour of Vietnam with plans for the future, and a need to make some fast money to finance his plans.

Handy with a gun, Darcy fits right in with Uncle Barry's little outfit.

All's pretty sweet 'till the Mafia send a couple of hardened thugs across the Pacific to muscle in on the local scene.

How hard could it be for a pair of serious Yanks to push the natives off their patch. After all, they were kicking arse in Vietnam at the time - a few Aussies should be a piece of cake.

Recognising the challenge on his turf, Barry sets out to route the Yanks from the outset - the best defence being a good offence.

But, you can't just kill two agents of the US Mafia and hope to get away with it.

The next two -- and they would surely come - would be bigger, meaner and pissed.

So, what to do.

A touch of Aussie guile with a good splash of geezer bottle ought to sort 'em out.

Dirty Deeds is one of those good, old-fashioned Aussie yarns with real guts, real charm and none of that mind-numbing Hollywood crap we have to put up with week in and week out.

In my reckoning, Australia puts out a 9 to 1 ratio of damn good yarns without the schmaltz, compared to the reverse from Tinseltown.

Dirty Deeds adds to that long list.

With a good cast, pumping soundtrack (no prize for guessing the theme song) and innovative cinematography, it entertains from start to finish.

My missus spotted one little glitch in continuity that might be fun to look out for. A semi-trailer that gets in the way during the big car chase has its company name and phone number on the side. The phone number has eight digits starting with 9 - a format not introduced until the late '90s.

Go see Dirty Deeds - I think you'll like it.

And if you are one those people who runs out of the cinema as soon as credits start rolling - don't. It's not a big scene, but the movie hasn't quite finished yet.