They say that within every comedian is an aspiring dramatic actor. Russell Crowe seems determined to prove the opposite. The Oscar-winning thespian, who recently gave a well-received performance as Hermann Goring in Nuremberg, has enjoyed the opportunity to unleash his funny side in recent years with such films as The Nice Guys and The Pope’s Exorcist. The latest example is The Get Out, a comic neo-noir thriller directed by Derrick Borte (with whom the actor worked on Unhinged, a film with a very different tone). As an aging Albanian nightclub owner, Crowe proves consistently delightful even when the material lets him down.

Set in Los Angeles (which is played by Australia’s Gold Coast, because not even movies that take place in L.A. can afford to shoot there anymore), the story revolves around Manco Kapac (Crowe), who as the film begins introduces himself via voiceover narration. “It’s a good job, but long hours,” he tells us about owning a nightclub in Koreatown, making it evident that he’s thinking about retiring.

Those thoughts get accelerated when he has a cardiac incident during a bout of strenuous lovemaking with his younger girlfriend Sunny (Teresa Palmer), for which he prepared by popping not one but two Viagra pills. He becomes even more determined to get out of the business when he’s robbed by a masked assailant on the street, and offers to sell the club to Joe (Luke Evans), the sort of colorful type who conducts business meetings while getting a massage and gleefully performs a horrendous rendition of the song “Suspicious Minds” for karaoke. (In reality, Evans has recorded several albums and is currently starring on Broadway in The Rocky Horror Show).

It turns out that the man who robbed Manco is Jeff (Aaron Paul, nearly as intense here as he was in Breaking Bad), a mild-mannered university professor whose side gig is writing college application essays for students and who’s being blackmailed by a crooked cop (Josh McConville). Jeff’s life becomes even more complicated when he makes a large cash deposit at his bank and arouses the suspicions of the teller, Carrie (Nina Dobrev), who blackmails him as well. It turns out that she’s a Point Break fanatic who would love to commit a robbery while wearing one of the presidential masks featured prominently in the film, so she forces Jeff to make her his partner in crime.  

The film, based on Thomas Perry’s novel Strip, wears its influences — ranging from Elmore Leonard to Carl Hiaasen to Quentin Tarantino — heavily, without the genuine wit of many of its predecessors. The attempted blending of humor and suspense mostly feels awkward, with the plot machinations straining credibility.

It proves most successful when leaning into the goofiness, with Dobrev’s ebulliently wacky performance as a woman turned on by criminality and Crowe’s deadpan comic turn as the intense Manco, who, at his girlfriend’s urging, makes an awkward attempt at alleviating his tensions by meditating. The sight of the lumbering actor wearing track clothes and sitting cross-legged while listening to a soothing relaxation tape on headphones is priceless. And you get the feeling that Crowe wanted to do the film just for the opportunity to bellow the line “You don’t bleach Albanian asshole!”

The sort of mildly entertaining diversion that will find a natural home on streaming services thanks to its well-known cast, The Get Out proves instantly forgettable. Although it’s worth sitting through the end credits just to hear the Gipsy Kings’ terrific cover version of the Eagles’ classic “Hotel California.”