What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

An honest burglar (Martin Lawrence) and a crooked businessman (Danny DeVito) get into an escalating series of confrontations over a stolen ring (Lawrence’s ring, stolen by DeVito); for each, outwitting the other becomes a bizarre matter of principle. A one-sentence description makes Matthew Chapman’s script (from the Donald E. Westlake novel) sound more coherent than it really is; under Sam Weisman’s lackadaisical direction, the film bumbles along from scene to scene without developing any suspense or comic momentum. Casualties of the general aimlessness, besides Lawrence and DeVito, are Nora Dunn as DeVito’s wife, Glenne Headly as his secretary, Carmen Ejogo as Lawrence’s girlfriend, and William Fichtner in a bizarre turn as a sissy detective who looks like the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde.