What a bold notion for a movie, and what a bust in terms of execution. Writer Paul Auster and his co-director Wayne Wang had such a fine time filming "Smoke," the summer art-house hit that revolved around the eccentric characters in a Brooklyn, N.Y., tobacco shop run by Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel), that they prevailed upon Miramax Films to let them make a second movie using the same setup.

The deal was they'd shoot it cheap and in five days. Keitel would be back with some of the original cast…