I'm in complete agreement with Roger Ebert's review on this; basically I enjoyed this movie only due to Michael Caine's performance. That's deserved, since he's the reason I saw it.
There's nothing really entertaining or uplifting about the plot or story, and there were no characters to admire, save for Mr. Caine's, and that only in part. I suspect that little of that was on the page, and more of it came directly from him.