Reminiscent title, redundant film

Brett Ratner is a director who unfairly gets a lot of flack among fanboys. For all intensive purposes he's just as bad as Michael Bay (who I also like), Renny Harlin (who I occasionally like), Jan de Bont (who directed "Speed," which gives him a wee bit of leeway) and Uwe Boll (who directed "House of the Dead," and thus deserves a lifetime in cinematic purgatory). Ratner's directed some entertaining popcorn flicks along the lines of "The Family Man," "Rush Hour 2" and "Red Dragon." He's also made execrable fluff -- "Money Talks" and "Rush Hour." His latest, "After the Sunset," which has a title that's dangerously similar to that of Richard Linklater's talky Euro-based pictures, will give his detractors more ammunition.\nPierce Brosnan headlines as the blandly named Max Burdett, a master thief who Thomas Crown would likely scoff at with his third-rate shave, Club Med clothes and American wheels. Max, alongside his scantily clad gal pal, Lola (the scintillating Salma Hayek), has just stolen the second of three priceless Napoleon diamonds. The victim of their crime is an FBI agent by the name of Stan Lloyd (Woody Harrelson), whose task was to defend the ripped-off rock. Spurned for his inefficiency, Stan pursues Max and Lola from Los Angeles to an unnamed Caribbean island. Here, the third of the aforementioned diamonds is docked on a luxury liner. Stan rightfully assumes Max is looking to pilfer the piece, in spite of the thief's incessant claims otherwise. See, he's "retired." While investigating Max, Stan aligns himself with Sophie ("28 Days Later" vet Naomie Harris), a local cop he partners with on the streets and in the bedroom. Also entangled in this mess of characters is an ignorantly verbose criminal kingpin (Don Cheadle), who wants Max to steal the diamond for his own means. True to form, chaos ensues as this clichéd caper unfolds.\n"After the Sunset" isn't bad per se, it's just too damned satisfied in being merely mediocre. Brosnan seems to be sleepwalking through the film, doing a gruff variation on his Crown character. Hayek is given nothing to do other than be "the girl" and prance around in ridiculously revealing clothing. Harrelson, who's been MIA as of late, is good to see on screen again but is obviously better than the material as evidenced by prior work in "Natural Born Killers," "Kingpin" and "The People vs. Larry Flint." Harris, who embodied modern feminist strength in "28 Days," is also relegated to eye candy status, with a crappy Caribbean accent to boot. The only actor who came to play is Cheadle. His gangster character espouses on the values of loving anonymous women -- the idea of which came from listening to the Mamas & the Papas. Sadly, his role is reduced to a glorified cameo. \nAdding insult to injury, the movie is homophobic, mildly sexist and derivative of a slew of heist pictures from the past few years. The abundance of action, humor and romance promised in the trailers is minimal at best. My advice: wait for "Ocean's 12" and skip the "Sunset"