Heist

Rating:
Summary: The Con Is On!
Review: "My guy is so cool, when he goes to sleep, sheep count him." So says "Pinky" (Ricky Jay)as he describes his "boss", Joe Moore (Gene Hackman). The same thing can be said for "Heist". Here's a movie that has a razor-sharp script full if wit, style, and excitement. I think it's fair to say that David Mamet writes some of the best dialogue I've ever heard. It's a known fact that he uses a metronome in order to keep his dialogue to have a certain rhythm to it. There are so many great lines in this movie it's impossible to recite them all here. I would love it, if this movie got an Osacr nomination for it's screenplay. I honestly can't understand why so many people have been as harsh as they have been with this film. I think it's one of the best films of 2001! Everything seems so perfect in this movie. Who could ask for more from a heist movie. I mean, the directing is great. Mamet knows the genre very well. And has proven this with films like "House of Games", and "The Spanish Prisoner". His script as I said before is amazing. The acting by Gene Hackman is the tops. Here's a guy that is such an old pro he can take any role you give him and turn it into something great. This is not to say that the part of Joe Moore is uninteresting. It most certainly isn't! Danny De Vito is suprisingly good in this film. At first I thought, this guy is all wrong for this movie. The part he's playing is an old-fashion tough-guy villian. For the obvious reasons, this doesn't seem to fit De Vito, or so I thought. I have to admit, he is very entertaining to watch as well. Everyone it seems, has a problem with Rebecca Pidgeon. People tend to think that she's out of place in a Mamet film. Some think she delivers the lines wrong. Though I've never thought this of her, this is her best role! She reminds me of a modern, hip Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanywick type of femme fatale. She is just as good has Hackman in this movie. And would be a great film to prove to those who dislike her, that she is a very good actress, who does work well in Mamet's style of filmmaking. Delroy Lindo has some great lines as well, but, I can't reveal them here. He has some good moments on screen and works well with Hackman and the rest fo the cast. "Heist" has a very old-fashion feel to it. It reminds me of Kubrick's "The Killing" in several ways. This is what I like about the movie. I love that old-fashion feel. I love the acting and the directing and the script. I love all the plot-twist that happen, but, must admit, I took one star off because I felt near the end of the film, I'd say, the last 15-20 minutes of the film, it just tries too hard. It's one suprise after another only Mamet has too much of a good thing going here.
"Heist" is probably one of the best heist movies I've seen this year. And we had a lot of them come out, like "The Score" and "Sexy Beast". This is a movie I wish the American public would have paid more attention to when it was in wider release. If you still haven't seen it, please try to find a theatre that's playing it. I think the American public really missed the mark with this one. It's an enjoyable film by one of the best and hardest working playwright\screenwriters we have around today. David Mamet's "Heist" is a modern classic that all other heist films must now be measured against!

Rating:
Summary: The Art Of Great Filmaking
Review: Gene Hackman shines as always in a fantastic crime caper aptly
called "Heist" Hackman plays Joe, A professinal theif/con artist
who he and is crew are experts in their field. During a daring
Jewlery store robbery Joe gets burnt on camera while trying to silence an eyewitness to the robbery and realizes it's time to move on from the life of crime and move down south with his boat
and young wife. But his boss Mickey(Danny Devito) refuses to give Joe the cash from the last heist & wants joe & his crew to do one last difficult heist of Swiss Gold from an airplane heavely guared by armed sercurity. The film consists of cross/
doublecross/triplecross and trademark mamet verbal brilliance
makes Heist a winner in all scores. Hackman at age 70 can still
pull it off and this is some of his best work since he, devito
and Delroy Lindo Shared the spotlight in 1995's Get Shorty.
But what really makes this film work is the chemisty Hackman &
Lindo are so good & belivable in ther roles it makes
the viewer beileve the two men have been in the crime game for many years I can't say enough good things about this movie I love it and seeing it on DVD is even better. If you like a good
old fashion crime thriller where nothing & no one is who or what they seem then Heist is the film to watch.

Rating:
Summary: "A little smile that seems wrong"
Review: Roger Ebert's review (see Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2004) of this movie is just about perfect. But he writes, "And the film ends with a character who gives us a little smile that seems wrong, because he is smiling at the audience and not at what has happened." I think he certainly IS smiling at what has happened! Have another look at the scene at the end of the movie when Delroy Lindo is talking to his girlfriend in his car and then the smile is so, so right. That smile is a quintessential David Mamet subtlety that tells us more about the Gene Hackman character than everything we thought we knew about him in the film. Touche!

Rating:
Summary: "Everybody needs money! That's why they call it money!"
Review: What is our fascination with criminal activities, specifically in film? Maybe it's the opportunity to live vicariously through the nefarious on-screen actions of others? Or maybe it's a chance to get a peek into a world many of us will probably never see? Whatever the reason, the public (myself included) seems to eat it up with a spoon.

Heist (2001), written and directed by David Mamet, certainly involves a lot of criminal activity, if you couldn't tell that from the title. The film stars Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Sam Rockwell, and Mamet regulars from a few of his other films Ricky Jay and Rebecca Pidgeon. The story begins with a somewhat elaborate robbery of a jewelry store involving Joe Moore (Hackman) and his crew consisting of his wife, Fran (Pidgeon), Bobby Blane (Lindo), and Don 'Pinky' Pincus (Jay). The group works efficiently and quickly, indicating a high degree of proficiency and experience, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong. And something does. Joe gets caught on videotape, and now must get out of the business. Only problem is, the group's fence for the stolen merchandise, Mickey Bergman (DeVito) takes the goods, but refuses to pay due to the fact that there's another, more lucrative job involving a large shipment of Swiss gold waiting in the wings, one he's already set up the financing for, and one both he and Joe agreed to prior to the current robbery, and prior to Joe getting `made' on video. Finding himself between a rock and a hard place, Joe sees no other choice but to put off his plans to head south to settle somewhere where he could elude law enforcement, as the trip would require large amounts of money, which he doesn't have. Joe also agrees to take on Bergman's inexperienced nephew, Jimmy Silk (Rockwell), as part of the team. Will the heist be successful? With the number of complications that seem to develop, you wouldn't think so, but reality isn't always what it seems, and in the world of criminals, trust is an especially hard thing to come by, as motives and loyalties can change faster than the weather in Chicago.

I've always kind of thought Mamet to be really adept in developing the art of the con, especially within his films. He seems to have an understanding of the ins and outs of the confidence game, and presents it very well on the screen. With regards to Heist, it's very difficult to tell if what's happening is for real or a part of some elaborate plan designed to put other events into motion. The layers of the con were very thick and intricate, and my only advice would be not to think about it too hard as it's happening, but rather just let it unfold and be revealed. At times I did feel the plot bordered on being a little to convoluted, but eventually, it all came around. I did think the level of intricacy in various schemes seemed just a little to complicated, especially given the expected outcome or reaction from the individuals the plan was designed to work on...the unpredictability seemed of little consequence here, as it seemed like Joe always seemed to expect everything, working all angles at all times. He is portrayed as a man who sees the value in careful, calculated planning and always having a backup plan, but then I think back to the beginning of the film when he got his mug on video, setting up the rest of the film...oh well...one element especially unique to many of Mamet's films is his use of words in the dialog. Many people find his technique to be disjointing, and completely unrealistic, and I can understand this as I no of no one who speaks the way in normal conversation. But what you have to keep in mind while listening to the dialog in this film, the characters only really use the sort of jibberty jabberty dialog when they are speaking within their own group, or members of the criminal element in general. I have had little to no (okay, none at all) experience with thieves, con men, grifters and others of that ilk, so I couldn't say that they don't speak that way or not...a good example of this is when Delroy Lindo's character issues the following statement, "You know why the chicken crossed the road? Because the road crossed the chicken." At first listen, it doesn't seem to make much sense, but someone on the IMDb put it well stating that it's most likely a warning to another not to `cross', or betray me, or I will mess you up. The dialog actually reminds me a lot of the way characters spoke in the gangster films of the 40's. Danny DeVito's character probably had the best line, which I used as a title for this review. To hear him speak it you understand his meaning perfectly.

The acting was really excellent throughout, but then that was my expectation given the talent involved in this more cerebral and less action oriented film. I was pleasantly surprised by Rebecca Pidgeon, as with the last film I saw her in, another Mamet film, The Spanish Prisoner (1997), I thought she was the weakest element. Here she seems more comfortable, and sports a more seductive and alluring character as Hackman's wife, Fran. I don't normally go for women with short hair, but it looked really good on her. The direction was also very good, keeping the story rolling along, engaging the viewer and keeping their interest throughout, which was pretty amazing considering the how complex the story got at certain points.

Presented here is a sharp looking wide screen print, with a smattering of special features including an original theatrical trailer, filmographies of the talent involved, and captions to follow along with some of the more arcane dialog.

Cookieman108


Rating:
Summary: Decent film; not one of Mamet's best
Review:
Gene Hackman plays an old thief who is coerced by another crook (played by Danny DeVito) to take on a high-risk heist. The plot cannot be captured in a few lines; it's got a lot of twists... a lot of people double-crossing each other.

It's great to see Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito get in each other's faces. However, the movie is not that far above the average heist film. It's got some great moments of dialogue ("Don't you want to hear my last words?" "I just did."), and it's got a lot of attitude and intense performances. But sometimes the flashy dialogue also seems forced, and you as the viewer feel aimlessly led around by a rope rather than really absorbed in the film. I also managed to predict what the next twist would be nearly every time.

The movie's worth watching if you're a fan of Mamet, Hackman and/or DeVito. You could find worst films out there; it's decent, but not great.

Rating:
Summary: Not for Kids, Thank Goodness
Review: 'Heist' is a 'thinking man's' thriller, full of great lines, genuinely suspenseful scenes, and clever, one-upping machinations that showcase the creative minds behind them. Gene Hackman is simply stellar playing a seasoned professional out for one last score, and Delroy Lindo is excellent, as always, here playing Hackman's friend. The rest of the cast, including Danny Devito, Sam Rockwell, Patti LuPone, and Rebecca Pidgeon, gives 'Heist' an ambience of working-class smarts, while Ricky Jay nearly steals the show as a deadpan confidence man with a sparkling wit. The best thing about 'Heist' is that it was made for adults--there are no absurd chases in $150,000 cars, no crew of jugheads walking around in slow-motion while wearing the most ridiculous of contemporary fashion, no screeching garage-band tunes and seismic camera shots to give the audience a skull-splitting migraine while hiding the fact that there's nothing of importance going on. Instead, David Mamet offers rich characters and a believable, if stylized, caper that is more along the lines of what real professionals pull off than anything in the junk that Hollywood typically ships to theaters. And while 'Heist' is not on the order of 'The Sting' or 'Topkapi,' what is anymore? This is the closest we get. A nod goes to Theodore Shapiro for a low-key but memorable score.

Rating:
Summary: A Few Good Scenes And Dialogue...
Review: ...But overall this is a clunker mainly due to Mamet's slow pacing. Hackman gives one of his best performances and Delroy Lindo is excellent in a supporting role. I also enjoyed Ricky Jay a whole lot but he is always good (i.e. Boogie Nights, narrator of Magnolia). The major problem with this film is that the pacing is much too slow for a film of this type. A "heist" flick should not simply plod along from scene to scene. I was also surprised at how boringly photographed the film was considering it was shot by PTA's DP Robert Elswit who I think also shot one of the recent Bond films so there is absolutely no excuse for this film to feel slow at any time.