Bandit

Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant used to play this type of role and Josh Duhamel does a fine job with it, ably supported by Elisha Cuthbert and Mel Gibson. The movie amuses with a well-paced account of the bank robbing career of one of the all-time greats, Gilbert Galvan Jr., all around cosplayer and makeup artist. It's hard to believe it was this easy, but it's hard to argue with 59 successful armed robberies and $2.3 million. Hopefully, this film will not inspire imitators, even though stealing is virtually legal now in some jurisdictions. This sensible, good-natured film is worth one viewing.

Sometimes all it takes is a good story, then the remaining pieces fall into place. Josh Duhamel did a great job portraying Gilbert and carried a strong presence throughout the movie with the accompanying cast. I've always been a fan of Elisha Cuthbert, and felt adequately sorry for her as her character navigated through a complicated relationship.

Nestor Carbonelli was my least favorite character (he played the detective Snydes). He was not my least because he did a bad job, I was more so annoyed with the detectives obsession with catching Gilbert and wanted the bad guy to get away.

I left this movie feeling fulfilled and slept good. It didn't have my running to my friends to tell the awesome story, but it was entertaining and kept me interested the duration of the movie.

Mel Gibson has a small role (he's great but his recent movies have been really low B-minus) in this 80s bank hiest story starring Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert, and Nestor Carbonell, all of whom do a great job. The plot is a bit bland and too drawn out, but made more interesting with its great cast, fairly realistic scenes of robberies in pre-internet Canada, and the impression that it's a true story (I don't know if it actually is). If you like bank robber movies, this one is pretty fun and well produced. Not much violence, sex or bad language, so it's a good family movie if you need to be saved from a reality show or (argh) a Hallmark movie.

Bandit is based on true events, that's how it starts, and that always makes it more interesting, gives the story a little punch. It's hard to believe though, makes you almost want to rob banks yourself, that's how easy it looked. But that was then, this wouldn't be possible anymore in this time and age. The story is easy to watch, no boring moments, a pinch of humour, and a good cast. Josh Duhamel plays the main character and he made him believable, a charismatic con artist that looks like he could get away with anything. Mel Gibson has a smaller role but for once he wasn't bad, a thing you could not really say for the last past years. If you like the crime genre Bandit is certainly worth a watch.

It's an interesting story that as a Canadian, I didn't even know about, but even Duhamel's charm wasn't enough to save the disjointed narrative. There are many small issues that failed this film to be great, instead of just good. One of the issues was the long and dragged out 126 min runtime; it had too much frustratingly bland filler and too little engaging substance to hold the viewer's attention. I was getting impatient in many scenes to "just get on with the story". I don't mind long running times, especially when time flies in the way the story is laid out and told, but in this case, time dragged on and I kept losing interest in between many scenes. I also felt the film suffered an identity crisis - not sure if it wanted to be taken seriously, or make me laugh along the way. Both happened, but not enough of either to keep me entertained in the 126 mins. The funny parts weren't funny enough, and the suspenseful parts were too far in between. I feel this needed to be cut down to a 90-100 min runtime to be more enjoyable. The middle parts of the film just didn't hold my attention very well. Even the narrating felt half completed and question if it needed more, or none at all to get the story going. It all just felt too bland and pedestrian to keep me entertained throughout. Although performances were decent and convincing especially Gibson and Duhamel, and the cinematography and score on point, this could've easily been more fun and suspenseful in the hands of more seasoned filmmakers.