Co-Writer/Director: John Luessenhop
Running time: 107 mins (approx)
Certification (UK
Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
UK Release date: 1st October 20110
Watched on Sky+ Sunday 7th August 2011.
PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.
I do like a good heist movie and was looking forward to this one when I noticed it in the TV listings. I knew little about it and so decided to watch it ‘blind’, as such, so I could see it unbiased by the opinions of others. It’s an interesting film that tries hard to keep the viewer’s attention with many plot twists and plenty of action. If anything, though, it ends up getting a little too complicated for its own good and there are a few too many plot twists to satisfy most. Not that it’s a bad film, it’s quite well made with some good performances… But more of my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first.
We begin with a bank job. A gang of men very professionally rob a bank in broad daylight, taking out elevators to make sure they are not disturbed. They escape by hijacking a TV news helicopter. Detectives Jack Welles and Eddie Hatcher are assigned to the case, but soon find that the thieves have covered their tracks very well. The gang meet up to divide the loot, they are; Gordon Cozier, Jesse and Jake Attica, A.J. plus a couple of other guys whose names I didn’t catch. A short time later a guy called Ghost, recently released from prison turns up. He was caught when they had pulled a previous job but brings news of a deal he has made with a Russian gang. A deal that will bring in a cool $20 million. Despite the short time frame involved, the gang goes for it and preparations are made. Meanwhile, Detective Wells is hot on their trail, he has kept an eye on Ghost and now knows who he’s dealing with. Will he be able to get to them before the heist goes down though? Of course I can’t tell you here or them Spoiler Police will have me doin’ time on some trumped up charge.
As I’ve already said, it’s not a bad film, it just doesn’t seem to grab the imagination like it’s supposed to. Decent performances all round; Chris Brown did a good job as Jessie Attica, as did Hayden Christensen, who I found actually quite good, as A.J. It was nice to see Matt Dillon as the hard boiled Detective Jack Welles and Idris Elba as the tough Gordon Cozier. T.I. did a good job as Ghost and I’ll give honourable mentions to; Michael Ealy as Jake Attica, Steve Harris as Lt. Carver, Jay Hernandez as Eddie Hatcher, Paul Walker as John Rahway and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Naomi Cozier.
Although it’s not the best heist film in the world, it is still quite watchable. The plot twists and diversions do tend to try and drag you away from the point, but it’s pretty well made nonetheless. A pretty good soundtrack by Paul Haslinger helps, but it does suffer though from being a little cliché, you can’t help feeling you’ve seen it all done better before. The fight scenes are all really well done, almost ‘Bourne-like’ in their execution, as are the chase scenes through the streets of L.A.
My Score: 5.4/10
IMDb Score: 5.0/10 (16,179 votes when this review was written).
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27/100 (106 reviews counted when this review was written).
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