Band of Robbers

I had seen the trailer several months before and patiently waited for its limited theater release. I was not disappointed.

The music and visuals make an excellent first impression; the first and last shots of the film are stunning. Once the plot developed, I began to appreciate the subtle humor and eccentric style. The actors are phenomenal and clearly care about their contribution to the film. An unpredictable story simply adds to the joy of it all. I do not believe there is anything I dislike about this film.

It is clear this movie's low ratings are given by people who do not enjoy modern adaptations of classic literature, nor understand or appreciate the unique, eccentric style it embodies. This is completely understandable.

Regardless, 10/10.

Classic characters from perhaps the greatest literary work of American literature, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer have hit the big screen, in a re-imagining that takes their mischievously- intentioned, hero-of-the-story selves, keeps a driving plot about finding a mythic treasure, and leaves the rest behind – and to good-spirited, well-earned fun in the new film, 'Band of Robbers'.

It should be stated early, there's not a whole lot that 'Robbers' truly, truly, lifts from Mark Twain's classic novel or characters other than using the characters' likeliness and winning charms to drop them into this new culture mash-up. It's really just the story of a version of a Huck Finn (Kyle Gallner) and a Tom Sawyer (Adam Nee), where Huck is a recent prison release looking to make clean and Tom is a wily cop whose adventure-seeking ways leads to his character's charming but still law-skirting flirtations, and through this all, they still remain the best of friends, along with a band of other self-affirmed misfit pirate pals.

The faces and talents enlisted here are truly where the comedy shines. It has the taste of 21 Jump Street comic-firing and timing of every-line-a-joke (and mostly bulls eye's at that), uses some familiar faces and some not-so, in playing a winning hand. Kyle Gallner as Huck is a Jeremy Renner and Rick Grimes a la The Walking Dead, where Adam Nee is as much as stand- out in a role that he knows so well. The geek-beloved Matthew Gray Gubler as Joe Harper, along with Hannibal Burress as Ben Rogers add a deep bench to the effort, with Burress (and "Greg…Knife" nailing every one of his scenes). Melissa Benoist and Eric Christian Olsen also star as little-used Becky Thatcher, Tom's new partner on the day of the planned heist (mention heist) and Sid Sawyer, beloved detective who plays it maybe a bit too straight.

Written and directed by brother filmmaking team Aaron and Adam Nee, 'Robbers' went through many years of development (including an idea of it being a TV show) before finally having its world premiere at the LA Film Festival. One wonders what following that version of Huck, Tom, and company may have been like, and what many adventures they may have spun in and out of in sit-com fashion. But its final format of a ninety-five-minute feature film feels like the best use of its talent, sparing any over-indulgence in what could have flopped as a gimmick and succeeds as a send-up that breathes fresh life into an American classic.

This little flick is amusing and fun. It has nothing to do with the Mark Twain characters of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn outside of it is the names of the two main characters played by Kyle Gallner and Adam Nee. The story starts with these two as childhood friends and then jumps forward to them as adults. One (Gallner) being released from jail the other (Nee) a mostly half hearted policeman.

They get back together, now adults, to continue their search for a legendary treasure of gold they have been seeking since childhood. In this pursuit they cross paths with numerous underworld criminal types. There is suspense, guns, chase scenes, etc. Not too much to be said about this movie outside of it being fun but mostly forgetful due to it's episodic editing. It's worth seeing for lite entertainment.

This could have went so wrong. I'm thinking of when they did this in Hook and turn Peter Pan into an adult, but Band of Robbers works really well.

The acting was superb. So was the writing. From the moment you see Huck Finn and Tom on the screen you got the feeling of two dudes who never out grew who they were as children and it was fantastic.

Tom and Huck still looking for treasure and adventure and they seem not to care about who gets in there way.

As a whole, the movie was a great expedience to watch. It was a quirky funny and a little dark.

Band of Robbers is a modernized version of the story of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and makes it more of a gangster story. It follows Tom and Huck as they search for an ancient treasure while that same treasure it been searched for by another man.

Let me start off by saying that I don't actually know the original Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn story, nor did I know that this was a modernization of said story until at least a day after watching it. Regardless, the source material for a movie doesn't affect my opinion of it whatsoever, but it just means that I would have had less of an idea of what was going to happen going in.

Band of Robbers is a fun movie. There was one scene in particular involving an early robbery that made me laugh a little harder than a probably should have. There are a handful of other jokes scattered about, but this scene specifically stood out to me. Also the movie does a great job of balancing both fantasy and realism. The movie's setting is realistic, yet the plot is more of a fantasy with the characters looking for buried treasure. Yet it all fits into the universe very well, nothing about that really feels out of place.

Despite these things this movie is very cliché and a little predictable. It often indulges in a handful of clichés that probably wouldn't have changed the story that much, and simply exist because the average movie watcher expects them to be there. Not all of these scenes were entirely pointless, but without all the things that I liked this movie would be very average.

Overall Band of Robbers is good. There are some very genuine laughs here and there and it manages to blend fantasy and realism very well. It suffers from being cliché and often predictable, but in the grand scheme of things was an enjoyable movie. In the end I would recommend this movie.