A fantastic new film from director Steven Soderbergh, The Limey is squirreled away at a handful of theatres across the country. Soon it'll be opening at more, and when it comes to your town, see it (if your town is New York, you can see it now at the Angelika or the theatre at 84th and Broadway).

Soderbergh's last pic, the George Clooney/Jennifer Lopez romantic thriller Out of Sight, was my top movie of 1998. This new film is a more stylized Out of Sight minus the star power and the romantic subplot. If that sounds unappealing, it ain't. The Limey is one of the most entertaining pictures this year.

It tells the story of Wilson, an Englishman thief played by Terence Stamp with a Cockney and a steely glare. Wilson's daughter has recently died in a car accident in L.A., and Wilson has flown across the ocean to find whoever "snuffed" her and get revenge. He teams up with a friend of hers, Ed (the terrific Luis Guzman, from Out of Sight), who leads him to her lover Valentine (Peter Fonda), a 60's-era rock and roll promoter who lives in a big house with a tweakable little nubbin of a brunette girlfriend who looks to be about 18 (picture Denise Richards, then filter her through every perverted fantasy you've ever had, that's the girl. If she were Jewish, I'd marry her).

When Valentine learns that Wilson is coming after him, he wails "Oh, man, I am fucking screwed!" It's that kind of movie. Fonda's performance is flawless, as are all in the picture. The dialogue crackles, the camera cuts all over the freaking place, through time and space and inside characters brains. The humorous situations are plenty: Wilson stakes out Valentine's place during a party and thinks he's hired extra security until Ed explains to him what valets are for. A pool-shooting hit man named Stacy (Nicky Katt) hangs out on a movie set and riffs on the extras and crew. The little things--bits of dialogue at a party. This is a film you watch with all eyes and ears open

Oh, and Wilson kicks serious ass, too. It's a guy movie, no doubt, but my date liked it also. If an artier version of Point Blank doesn't appeal to you, or a sexless Out of Sight, see it anyway. You'll thank me afterwards. Really.