Art Heist

OK - the helicopter shots are fantastic, and the director made good use of some of Barcelona's top sights. Otherwise...production value was blown in the first few minutes and the rest of the film felt like a movie of the week. Ellen Pompeo was charming and fun to watch, Abel Folk had the most depth and was very effective, and William Baldwin was...well, William Baldwin. He got to put his martial art training to good use and be a running-jumping-earnest action figure. The rest of the cast was wooden at best, but mostly paper. So - if you're nostalgic about Spain - it's a picture postcard with an action twist, and a healthy dose of El Greco. If not, skip it.

one may ask why? the characters snarl, yell, and chew the scenery without any perceptible reason except someone wanted to make a movie in barcelona. billie baldwin, is that the right one?, is forgettable in the cop/estranged-husband/loving-father-of-cute-little-blond-girl role. the story seems to have been cut and pasted from the scenes thrown away from adventure films in the last three years. ellen pompeo's lack of charisma is a black hole that seems to suck the energy out of every scene she is in. her true acting range is displayed when she takes her blouse off as the movies careens from one limp chase scene to another. unfortunately, the directing rarely goes bad enough to be camp or a parody. it is all just cliché, familiar in every respect. the director cast his own daughter as the precocious brat probably because no respectable agent would have permitted a client to ruin a career by being in such a lame, contrived and uninteresting movie. the only heist here is the theft of the investor's money and the viewer's time.

"Art Heist" feels like "The Return of Bruno" CD by Bruce Willis.

I say that because the backup singers do most of the work. Just like William Baldwin, Abel Folk, and Ed Lauter do most of the work. Ellen Pompeo, like Willis, can't carry the heavy load of being the main character (or Singer). The script is a little weak and Pompeo makes it worse, with her dull line readings. Thank the Baldwin God, because William swoops down to save it. He plays Bruce Walker, a loose cannon cop who wants to stop Sandra (Pompeo) from getting too over her head. The action scenes are well filmed and William has dethroned Daniel as the sweatiest Baldwin, which is great! The last reviewer took this movie WAY too seriously. You're not supposed to think about this type of movie in that way.

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I don't get it. Ellen Pompeo is dynamic and moving on Grey's Anatomy. What happened? Perhaps its the ensemble she has been placed among. I know why she was cast and what makes this woman is so appealing. This woman has amazing eyes. Even if she wore absolutely no makeup, she would look beautiful and wholesome. I think she belongs in a period piece, a costumer. In a Victorian era film, where the dialog is snappier and the physical acting is more restrained she might fare better.

In any case, Billy Baldwin needs to do something with the hairdo he has been sporting in his last few films. Its like he knows that his early 90s, long in the front, short in the back style is too dated to appear in a film with (not to mention, too young and surfer-dude for him), so he slicks it back which looks even more dated, and a little creepy like Gomez Addams. Baldwin needs to close crop that hair for once, like in a war movie. He has the most interesting face of the Baldwin brood, I just wish he would learn how to act with it.

But it's certainly not very good either. Most of the acting is pretty flat, but I blame that more on the writers' incompetent dialog than on the actors' ability. Ellen Pompeo is pretty, but in such as way to be believable as an art history expert. The plot has enough twists to keep you guessing (and keep watching) and yet enough clues to help you figure it out. That said, it's still pretty trite and implausible. You do get to see some famous Barcelona landmarks, but the filmmakers haven't exploited their locale to the fullest. I thought the chase scenes were fairly well done, except that they all start looking the same after a while.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that the current IMDb rating of 4.1 is fair; several of the reviews here give it a "1", which should be reserved to the worst movies of all time, which this certainly isn't.

I picked up a used DVD copy at a local bookstore hoping to revisit Barcelona. In that sense, "Art Heist" was a bit of a disappointment. It's (barely) worth seeing if you have an interest in art history and in Barcelona and can see it for free, but for those really wanting a sense of this wonderful city, the best bet is "L'Auberge Espagnole".