Friday Night Double Feature: Heist Away

Ocean’s Thirteen comes out this week and so far the word on the movie is good. That’s something I’m really happy to hear. As much as I don’t like George “Chicken Head” Clooney, I really enjoyed Ocean’s Eleven, the remake of the old rat-pack flick.

Ocean’s Eleven reminded me of one of my favorite plot devices: the heist. See, a really good heist flick involves all sorts of twists and turns as the players devise a plan and then have to deal with situations that arise as that plan doesn’t go exactly according to… well, the plan. I love a good heist flick where the writers have actually had to turn on those brains of theirs and not just toss out formulaic Hollywood writing. They have to reveal the plan to the audience, but withhold enough information that we are captivated by what’s going on to the point that we are absolutely breathless while that critical moment comes that makes it look like everything is going to fall apart.

Ocean’s Eleven was a good heist flick – I’ll go as far as to say it was a great heist flick. Watching Danny Ocean plot out how to rob Terry Benedict’s casino. The plan was incredible – especially the planning sequences where Ocean and right-hand man Rusty (Brad Pitt) continually pointed out the flaws in their own plan and how ludicrous this whole endeavor was. The cast was fantastic, the dialog snapped, a great time was had by all… and then Ocean’s Twelve came around.

The sequel to Ocean’s Eleven showed what was wrong with the heist flick and made me feel like Stephen King’s obsessive fan in Misery. Instead of twists, the movie undermined itself. Instead of turns, the movie jumped off the track. And just when everything was already disappointing, they pulled the stupid “Julia Roberts” move (withholding details for the few of you fortunate enough not to have seen the film). Instead of being caught up in the heist, I felt cheated and absolutely disappointed with Ocean’s Twelve - a movie I entered the theater prepared to love.

So, I’m glad to hear positive things about Ocean’s Thirteen and this week we celebrate the heist flick. Since Ocean’s Twelve is at a level beyond not being able to recommend it, we’re going to steer away from the Ocean’s films for this week’s double feature. These more cultish entries in the heist genre get it right though and are a great way to prepare yourself for Ocean’s Thirteen.

Sneakers

Robert Redford had already added his name to the heist flick genre with The Sting but in Sneakers he assembles a team of stars worthy of Danny Ocean: Dan Ackroyd, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, and Mary McDonnell go up against a pony-tailed Ben Kingsley for a device that could jeopardize National Security. Half of the fun of Sneakers is watching Redford’s team not just plan out heists, but try to solve the mystery of what’s gong on, including a great sequence that allows Strathairn, playing a blind man, to really shine as he figures out audio clues. Still, it is the planning out sequences that are really fun here – particularly the memorable scenes where Mary McDonnell attempts to get spoken passwords from a homely scientist played by fan-favorite Stephen Tobolowsky (“Hi, my name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport. Verify me.”). A few of the sequences even seem to preface the trials Ethan Hunt had to go through in Mission: Impossible, so the bonus here is you get the same ideas minus Tom Cruise. If you haven’t seen Sneakers yet, you are in for quite the treat.

Hudson Hawk

Typically I put the better movie as the second selection, but I’m afraid so many people are biased against one of my favorite heist flicks that they wouldn’t have stuck around long enough to see what I put second, so Hudson Hawk is the follow up selection this week. I love this movie and, as heist flicks go, it’s one of the most creative movies around. Bruce Willis is the Hudson Hawk, a cat burgler who times out his jobs with songs – he and his partner sing as they commit their robberies. Sure, the songs were probably just a gimmick to help sell some of Bruno’s albums, but they end up creating some great moments in the movie. If the idea turns you off, you’re taking the movie too seriously, something which the filmmakers obviously didn’t want. Spies named after candy bars (which is better than their old code names which were STDs)? Sandra Bernhard and Richard E. Grant as over the top villains? A plot that involves a secret hidden in DaVinci’s works of art? Oh, wait… that last one proved feasible enough for a popular novel, but Hudson Hawk had it first.

Other heists worth revealing: The Ladykillers, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Sting, National Treasure, Oceans 11 (but not Oceans 12!)

Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.