It’s a movie about Hollywood and the dirty dealing it often takes to “get to the top” or even “get a break.”

But it’s hard to muster up any enthusiasm for the stumblebums in the plot, or behind the camera for “Above the Line,” which takes its title for the way the most important creative folks in a film are billed — writers, actors, director, producers

This Jeffrey Scott Collins action comedy is about wannabes/never-will-bes secretly hired to steal Oscar statuettes from a particularly vile and successful producer (veteran character actor Gregg Henry). Things go right and things go wrong, some rise to the occasion by improvising and some flee.

And the plot and editing are so confused that it’s damned difficult to sort out who is screwing over whom and who knows what among that sextet of would-be starlet, directors, a writer, a “Hero” and a producer.

An empty Beverly Hills McManson is the meeting place for our handsome “Hero” (John Way), the pretty “Princess” screenwriter (Sophia Ali), the “Dame” (Jamie Lee), the duo of young directing brothers, “Cowboy” (Dylan Playfair) and “Spaceman” (Jackson Pace) and the producer who’s basically still a “Ghost” (Reno Wilson) as far as Hollywood is concerned.

They’re summoned by a “golden ticket” and ten $100 bills each. There’s a cool $million in it if they can swipe the five ill-gotten Oscars that Jack Woodrow (Henry) keeps in his hilltop mansion for some unseen puppetmaster. A plan is laid out for them. It sounds nuts, but there’s a lot of money and that tempts most, but not all.

What really seals the deal for the five who agree to take the van provided and don the Halloween masks within to carry out this heist is each person’s Jack Woodrow “story.”

Our writer was screwed out of an Oscar-winning, break-out credit. The fading “I’m barely thirty”
Dame got humiliated trying to sleep her way into a guest spot in one of Woodrow’s TV series. And so on.

They tell these stories on the way to the heist, during and after it, as we all figure out Jack’s at home, he’s got starlet-“company” and this robbery goes off the (cocaine) rails in a hurry and a lone cop (Adhir Kalyan) gets involved.

We figure out why everybody, including the two young director/brothers have a beef. But we can’t figure out why they’d know and party with a twice-their-age Hollywood veterinarian played by Cedric the Entertainer, whom they visit when one of them gets shot.

And we get Hollywood “lessons” that King of Hollywood Jack imparts to each as he’s shafting them in this way or that.

“Always read the contract.” “Speak up when you know you’re right.” Etc.

When a movie like “The Player” or “Swimming with Sharks” works, there’s credit enough to go all around. But when your movie isn’t remotely on a cleverness par with those acrid tales of Hollywood chicanery, the blame is rarely the players’ fault.

This or that character serves no real function, as scripted, or when they do (Suzy Nakamura plays Jack’s long-suffering assistant), what to actually do with them.

Old pro Henry knows the biz and the creeps who run it well enough to make Woodrow interesting, at least. The other cast are trapped playing “types” that barely register as the plot stumbles this way and that, trying to find surprises or credibility as a Tale from the Dark Side of Hollywood.

Something got lost by the “Above the Line” “creatives” in the writing, workshopping or editing that might have helped it make sense, or at least feel less confused and pointless.

Rating: TV-MA, violence, drug abuse, profanity

Cast: Sophia Ali, Gregg Henry, Reno Wilson, Dylan Playfair, Jamie Lee, Jackson Pace, Suzy Nakamura, John Way, Adhir Kalyan and Cedric the Entertainer.

Credits: Directed by Jeffrey Scott Collins, scripted by Jeffrey Scott Collins and Jono Matt. A Quiver release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:33