IT'S been at least a week since the latest gang of dodgy, double-dealing, East End geezers swaggered into our multiplexes.

So it comes as no surprise that Matthew Vaughn, producer of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels - the film that ignited the trend - should make his feature film directing debut with Layer Cake.

Adapted for the screen by JJ Connolly from his own violent crime thriller of the same name, this is a bruising account of deception and murder.

Smooth-talking, dapper drug-dealer X (Craig) poses as a legitimate businessman to run his lucrative operation, in the hope of one day retiring from his life of crime.

He sees his opportunity to slip silently into the shadows when heavyweight crime boss Jimmy Price (Cranham) hires him to locate the drug addict daughter of all-powerful crime boss, Eddie Ryder (Gambon).

X eagerly accepts the job, seeing the

ission as a simple way to make some

easy money and get out of the game.

He also agrees to perform a second favour for Jimmy: to act as a middleman for a huge shipment of Ecstasy from livewire, small-time criminal Duke (Forman).

Little does X realise that Duke 'acquired' the drugs by ripping off an Amsterdam drugs cartel.

X feels certain that his dreams of escape will soon be realised but Jimmy, perhaps pre-empting any thoughts of an early escape, makes it quite clear that: "Guys like you can't leave the business because you are too important to guys like me."

Then there is the small problem of a renegade Serbian warlord and a sexy blonde called Tammy (Miller), who sets X's pulse racing.

Getting out of the drugs business without incurring the wrath of Jimmy's softly spoken right-hand man, Gene (Meaney), might be more perilous than X first thought.

Layer Cake delves into London's criminal underbelly, an all-too-familiar scene that fails to hold much interest, even with the benefit of Vaughn's impressive, hyperkinetic direction.

Craig doesn't stamp his authority on the lead role and the supporting cast is merely adequate.

The huge cast of players and a tangle of sinewy sub-plots are shoehorned uncomfortably into 105 minutes, leaving little room for character development or explanation.

By the blood-soaked finale, I'd almost given up trying to work out who was cheating whom.

I'd certainly given up caring whether X and his cohorts lived to scam another day.