’m calling the army.” When a mobster’s stash house comes under attack by machine gun-toting rivals, fixer Ignatius Locke (Luis Guzman) phones his best enforcer: Raymond Hayes (Kevin James). But Ray is at home, having a quiet family dinner with his wife Alice (Christina Ricci) and their two children (Keana Marie and Leo Easton Kelly); it’s not a late-night job he’s accustomed to handling, even if he’s more than capable. Five years earlier, it’s revealed that he was a New Jersey cop, whose career wasn’t lucrative enough to even put his children into a good school. And so, he approached Ignatius, who works for underworld boss Michael Temple (Melissa Leo), to get him into a shadier business – one that requires keeping secrets, knocking heads, collecting debts, and hiding bodies.

Strangely – and goofily – Temple’s thugs are supposed to follow an honorable code, which includes killing in defense rather than entering conflicts with guns blazing (something of a right way of doing wrong things). Of course, Ray doesn’t bother with questioning when he’s assigned a task; he shoots first, then doesn’t ask questions at all. It’s an exceedingly generic setup, establishing a former hero who must stoop to questionable antiheroism in a period of weakness (a motive that doesn’t even feel genuine, as he wishes to eventually open a diner). But he isn’t supposed to sacrifice these loose morals as he cleans up messes among warring thugs. “We are a better class of criminals.”

Expectedly, Ray won’t be able to keep his hands too clean for long, especially after competing kingpin Lonny Castigan (Timothy V. Murphy) and turncoat Harry (Miroslav Barnyashev) make a move on Michael’s turf. It’s certainly an interesting casting choice to put James, who has most recently starred in children’s movies (and is well-known as a comedian), in the role of a tough-as-nails henchman. Older, weathered, and sporting dark facial hair, he certainly looks the part (his bulkier frame lends a welcome authenticity), though it’s something of a hurdle for his normally whimsical, sarcastic attitude not to get in the way of convincing ruthlessness. In certain moments, particularly when he’s working silently, he’s rather fitting; his delivery of dialogue, on the other hand, occasionally shatters the realism.

Though the supporting actors are more than sufficient in helping to craft this story and its environment, the scripting doesn’t do much in the realm of creativity (a reference to “Cape Fear” is amusing yet incompatible in this modern arena). Dark, brooding locales; close-quarters, hand-to-hand grappling; intermittent drug use, cursing, and slapping women around; and brutal violence as a way to develop personas are all rather routine methods of designing a crime thriller. There really isn’t anything original about Hayes’ characterization – from his ethical decline to his heavy-hitting brutality to his proclamations about family values – or his misadventures. “It all starts with a small sin …”

As a result of the plainness of the plot and the dullness of the dialogue, Ray’s plight doesn’t hold much water. It’s intense because it puts innocent people in danger; it’s exciting when cohorts duke it out (some of the shootouts aren’t bad); and villains behave villainously as one-note roles written solely for evil. The coincidences, close-calls, and last-second escapes are all by-the-books; the premise is essentially just an excuse for action and bloodshed with a hint of dark comedy. But even the twists and turns are overwrought and anticipated; it’s revenge fantasy and cathartic slaughter rather than a well-thought-out gangster flick (in many ways, it mirrors the plotting and the failures seen in 2013’s “The Family”). In the end, the themes conflict in odd ways, since the parents scold their kids when they use foul language, but bolster their use of violence when it’s warranted – a curious message about righteous killing, especially when religious components crop up (some subtler than others), alongside the acknowledgment of the lifetime of therapy that will be needed to function after witnessing so much death. Ultimately, with a story so ordinary and uninspired, the only entertainment value comes from the performances by Ricci and Guzman, who are mostly above this lukewarm material.

– Mike Massie