Weekly Cinemeh

Hello and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This week we return to an old favorite, heist movies. Heist movies are great because they are tense and action packed while also often having a mystery to solve, such as who is going to betray whom and/or how will the heisters avoid the cops. They are fun movies that scratch a lot of itches. So anyway, without further ado: To the list!

1:The Bank Job
This heist movie is supposedly based on a true story that was prevented from going to press by British authorities. I say supposedly not because I don't believe them (the robbery in the movie actually happened) but because the movie is surrounded in fiction (the main characters are all made up by the producers). Regardless of the verisimilitude of the base story, that's not why we are here. The plot is based around a group of thieves who are hired by a friend who is being blackmailed by a British intelligence agent into robbing a bank to get a set of compromising photos a pimp/drug smuggler is using to stay out of jail. Its a little convoluted, but that's what makes heist movies fun most of the time, trying to suss out what allegiances people have. The acting is fine, and the movie is a lot funnier than I thought it would be, though it gets very dark in the later half. Jason Statham is good, but you can always count on him to be competent in an action flick and Saffron Burrows was good as the leading lady. James Faulkner surprised me in this movie. He plays a face type character who reminds me of a British John Waters, it was very well done. I enjoyed the movie for the most part, give it a shot.

Eshi: I have kind of a weird relationship with British gangster flicks. On one hand I've enjoyed every one that I've seen, but they also tend to run together in my head, the cast and, tone and rough layout are all pretty much the same in some pretty key regards. So a movie where Jason Statham is a witty bad ass with a good heart who steals something doesn't tend to make much of an impression. The Bank Job manages to avoid that fate for the most part. The heist itself is clever and tense and the aftermath is super cathartic. Also, its pretty easy to find free, so fuck it why not.

2:The Art Of The Steal
This movie surprised me a lot. The cast has some great chemistry and the plot is good, though we can't talk to much about it without spoiling it, which is the main problem when it comes to talking about heist movies. Basically a former wheel-man turned evil Knievil-style stunt motorcyclist decides to do one last job (because it is always one last job). I was definitely not expecting to find this movie so funny. I was expecting it to be kind of bad, so maybe that's why I was so surprised.Watch this movie, but keep in mind that it is not supposed to be a serious flick and you will have fun with the ridiculousness of some of it. There is more to talk about, but I can't without giving away some twists so lets move on.

Eshi: There isn't much to be said about this movie, as Brian has pointed out. I will say that there aren't enough movies about art thieves and this fills that gap super well. Jay Baruchel always plays essentially Jay Baruchel and I can never seem to find fault with that. Squirrely little fucker. Also, Kurt Russel looks kinda like a wax figure of himself these days. Or maybe some kind of flesh toned ham. I mean, he's always looked like he's made of unfortunate sausage, (nothing against him I love his movies and I also look like sad meat goods) but that was always part of his charm. Now I just feel like I should be concerned about his thyroid. I feel bad, because I'm really not trying to be mean, Kurt Russel is great and he doesn't need shit from me. But now I'm having too much fun with it to get rid of and all of my attempts to backpedal just make it worse. So instead of apologizing I'll just link his IMDB page and encourage you to watch the lot.

3:Three Kings
I had never seen this movie before this week, so some of the subject matter was dated (though not nearly enough of it). This movie is a heist movie about thieves with a conscience. Basically a group of soldiers decide to steal some stolen gold from the Iraqi government, who stole it from Kuwait. During the heist they spot a human tragedy unfolding in front of their eyes and instead of just running with the money they intervene. Its a good movie because it focuses on an aspect of war that often gets forgotten, people are people. Our enemies are still people and should be approached as such. All of the major conflicts in the movie come from "othering". The cast is good, George Clooney is charismatic as fuck, no surprise there, and for some reason Marky Mark has endeared himself to me. Also I haven't seen enough of Ice Cube's work, but he was good in this role so I want to check him out in other stuff. While the movie is a little heavy handed at times, the message needs to land so its forgivable. Watch it.

Eshi: Fucking Marky Mark man, somebody get that fucker a funky bunch again and lets get to it. For a heist/human interest/rescue movie Three Kings manages to stay relatively coherent and has some poignant themes. The action is a little over stylized at points but it sends its message. I'm also always kinda pleased when Jaime Kennedy's piercing annoyance is tempered by a role that can use it. Certainly worth the runtime.