Put your hands in the air and wave’m like ya just don’t care! Not really, but people do put their hands up in Barry Levinson’s (Wag the Dog) latest film Bandits. Levinson directs Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense) and Billy Bob Thorton (Armageddon) in a screenplay by Harley Peyton. You can also throw in Cate Blanchett from Elizabeth fame.

The story goes a little like this: Joe (Willis) and Terry (Billy Bob) are spending a little time in the Oregon penitentiary when Joe suddenly wants out. Joe then grabs a cement truck that is pouring concrete at the prison and takes off in it, at which point buddy Terry hops on. After a bunch of car switching they go to the nearest bank to make an unauthorized withdrawal using only a highlighter pen. Then they make another escape and start to think things out.

A little background on the characters: Terry is the smart, shy, think things through hypochondriac. Joe is the buff, good looking, do it and then think about it kind of guy. Now back to the story, where the two decide they will start robbing banks by kidnapping the bank manager the night before the robbery. This they can rob the bank early in the morning when there are no customers so there will be less complications. Their ultimate goal is to head to Mexico and open a hotel with a nightclub and restaurant. However they need to enlist a third person into the gang. So they get Joe’s cousin Harvey (Troy Garity, Conspiracy Theory) who is a bit slow, and wants to be a stunt man. On to the bank robberies where the first one goes off without a hitch, which then earns them the name of the Sleepover Bandits. However, in between gigs Terry bumps into Kate (Blanchett), who is an emotional wreck due to her unloving marriage. Terry can’t get rid of her, and so she eventually becomes part of the gang. During all of this the director places clips from later in the movie when Joe & Terry give an interview with an America’s Most Wanted type show, as well as clips from their final robbery where we hear that they are gunned down. Well in between their first and last robberies are a lot of action, stupid moves, and a love triangle between Joe, Terry, and Kate.

Bandits tended to work best as a comedy, not so much with the drama or romance portions. I felt Billy Bob Thorton did an outstanding job as the hypochondriac loser type. There were some good laughs, but could have used even more. Taking everything into consideration, not a bad movie, so it gets six couches out of ten.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:47:45 AM

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