The Hard Easy

A pretty awful Tarrantino try-hard wannabe flick with poor characterisations and a plot that is supposed to be exciting I suppose that just gets dull due to well pretty much any factor.

The acting is below average, most of the actors are decent usually (with exception of Jessica Simpson's ex-husband Nick Lachey who was equally bad in 'RISE (2007)').

Vera Farmiga is usually one of my favourite actresses but I have no idea why she did this movie, granted she wasn't a household name when the movie was made, which spent years on the shelves before being released straight to DVD in the US (unsurprising I'm sure to those that have seen it) and she can't carry this turd up no matter how hard she tries (even though she doesn't).

It starts with the main players robbing a bank then it goes back into time for the next hour of how this robbery came to be and it is truly a unfascinating story of the same old same old with no true struggles that could be able to gain interest with the viewers.

The movie also flows very badly, the editing is terrible, occasionally fast cut and occasionally few and long single shots in a scene there is no real rhyme or reason to it either, feels very amateurish.

And throw in a bunch of f-bombs that screams of desperation to keep the edge and coolness of the movie, but it fails, as does the movie on all accounts.

In Los Angeles, the gambler Paul Weston (Henry Thomas) is a loser, and owes a lot of money to the dangerous mobster Freddie (Rae Allen). When he is brutally beaten and the life of his former wife is threatened by the Freddie, his acquaintance bartender Vinnie (Gary Busey) sends him to Dr. Charlie Brooks (Vera Farmiga) first and then he convinces him to participate of a heist in the jewelry district with the professional thief Gene (Bruce Dern) to raise the necessary money to pay his debt. Meanwhile, the stock market broker Roger Hargitay (David Boreanaz) finds that the company where he works embezzled US$ 5,000,000.00 from their clients and he will be arrested in a couple of days. His boss Ed Koster (Peter Weller) convinces Roger and two co-workers to participate in an easy robbery of a jewelry planned by an inside man. On Saturday morning, both gangs arrive in the same jewelry for the same heist at the same time.

"The Hard Easy" is a surprisingly funny and entertaining movie. The screenplay is well developed and the direction and acting are good, in spite of the exaggerated and histrionic performance of Peter Weller. The scene where Vera Farmiga "rapes" Henry Thomas is very sexy, and I really liked this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Duplo Assalto" ("Double Heist")

just wanted to say, that the score is absolutely terrible. even in mid-90s this was dated. and, yes, some of the actors do a good job, mostly it is just average. thank god vera farmiga was in this one. i won't really recommend it. really not. what else. this e.t.guy is quite okay in it. the plot: starts okay, but the characters are just way to plain, and it gets worse every minute. one good thing about it, the robbery scene is well cut, time leap forward and backward, well done, but again sucking score and to thin characters. actually, the longer i think about it, the thinner the people get. add some violence and ready you are. won't complain about the f-words, didn't disturb me.

Just a lazy worthless pile... this movie is so inept everyone - including the catering crew - should be banned from ever making a flick again.

I lost track at the redundancies -- If you deleted all the scenes in which one person is trying to convince another person about agreeing to the heist, you'd have a film 45 minutes shorter. Same with the characterizations -- yeah, the guys are hard up for money. Got that the first five times it was mentioned.

Anyway, anyone who is interested in writing a screenplay should definitely watch this - any doubts about your lack of ability will vanish.

Sure, it's a genre picture, but a stylishly directed and well acted one. First time helmer Ryan especially gets great performances out of the character actors (Weller and Dern) who haven't had a chance to strut their stuff on screen like this in years. I do wish Ryan's talents in striking a nice balance between action, noir, and drama had been matched by a smarter screenplay (you want the plot to twist more and not just thicken). However, all in all it's a great showcase for some fine acting (not only by the aforementioned Weller and Dern; Farmiga, Boreanaz, and especially Thomas also come off quite well)and director Ryan, who seems to exhibit the same muscular craftsmanship of a young Sidney Lumet or Michael Mann.