American Heist

I caught the premiere of this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival this week and out of all the films I screened this week, this was by far the worst. Audience members walked out mid way and rightfully so.

Adrian Brody attempted to play a hardened criminal however came off more as a leisure suited forgettable character. Set in New Orleans neither Brody or Christensen could maintain any type of accent or connection.

Hayden Christensen appears in a role often played by Casey Affleck only without any sort of stage presence. There was zero connection between these two supposed brothers mixed with random crying scenes to evoke failed emotions.

Akon proves that he's just as forgettable as an actor as he is a music artist and having his music included in the soundtrack only added to the ridiculousness of this film.

With a plot containing so many holes that the end was seen before the 15 minute mark hit lets you know what you're in for. Borrowing from Heat and The Town, American Heist leaves the audience wanting more and wondering what and why they just watched.

Jordana Brewster looks great and was probably the only redeeming quality of the film for that reason alone.

Save your time and money and avoid this one.

They complained how bad the movie was and they were right. I knew we were in trouble with that cheaply done title graphic in the beginning, which is odd because they obviously had a serious budget.

I think Adrien Brody was a poor choice for the role even though he gave a solid performance. We were supposed to believe he was this hardened criminal just released from prison. Fat chance, with those flamingo legs of his. And what seems like support for him given by some black thugs he knew from prison was nothing more than exploitation of his services, and his brother's (Hayden Christensen) talent with cars, in helping them rob a bank. And Christensen's character was just trying to keep his life on the clean side, working as a car mechanic. The brothers have a troubled relationship, making it one of the most bizarre reunions between family members in movie history.

The film further trudges along with this love story subplot between the straight-laced Christensen character and an old flame (Jordana Brewster) who happens to work for 9-1-1 dispatch. You see where this is going? Despite the efforts of Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen, this is the worst film I have seen at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was a Heat (1995) wannabe written by an 11-year-old with limited awareness of reality and the human condition, and directed by an amateur. But none of this didn't prevent it from being bought for distribution immediately upon it's premiere.

But that's mostly due to the fact that the main focus was on two brothers.

Adrien Brody plays the older brother who did hard time for the crime that also involved his little bro played by Hayden Christensen who did a shorter sentence and got out determined to do as good of a job as any ex- con to keep his nose clean, but when his brother gets out, he forces little bro back into the life as a favor to the man that stop the constant booty tapping that he was getting.

This focus could have been better. Adrien Brody gave a decent performance as a man who got broken in his decade in prison, but this performance goes over weakly in this mediocre film that did not develop his character enough for Brody's attempts at heart breaking scene stealing.

Bouncing his acting chops off of Christensen was not a good call either. He tries, but Christensen seem too focus on his though guy persona to really get any acting done.

I feel most sorry for Johanna Brewster who is now officially typed cast as the girlfriend to the criminal car nut, which she perfected in the Fast and Furious franchise.

For the movie to be called American Heist is misleading, though the implementation of the heist was somewhat suspenseful, we did not get to see much heist planning. It's no Heat or Set it off.

Whatever this movie was trying to do it kind of fumbled the ball in both cases.

There seems to be something inherently lacking about American Heist. Be it may the boring pace or the lackluster script, the movie is considerably basic and uninteresting. Story follows James (Hayden Christensen) who is forced to do a heist by his brother Frankie (Adrien Brody). That's practically all there is to it, yet the movie is needlessly bloated by pointless cliché of crime drama.

It takes literally an hour before any momentum can be achieved. At that span of time American Heist is a repetitive foray of tired love subplot and awkward script which consists of refined use of words such as "Fuck" and "Bro" in every other sentences. It feels so dreary and dry as the cast could perform so much more.

Adrien Brody is certified good, bless him for trying so hard with so little, although in the end the performance is unintentionally uncomfortable. Hayden Christensen can definitely deliver better performance, in fact he did in Takers, which is exactly the same genre. Heck, even Jordana Brewster in Fast and Furious franchise has had better material to work with. Her role in this film is so redundant, almost a glorified wallflower even.

This is quite surprising since the movie has some good production. When it gets going the cinematography is pretty good. Using action oriented shots and presentation with the city in rain, the tension is elevated on the last act. However, it's barely enough to get audience's attention, especially after the comparatively weak start.

American Heist may boast some famous name and a glint of decent visual, but the tedious and generic material is a waste of time and money.

Boring, predictable and utterly forgettable, "American Heist" is a complete waste of time. I watched this because my wife has a thing for Adrien Brody. I think he's a fine actor, but clearly this was done just for a paycheck. It's hard to make a bland bank robbery, but it was done successfully here. Just putting known actors in a film does not a good film make, an intelligent well-written script helps and this was just thrown together without much thought.

Save your money and read a good novel or take a walk or stare into space! There are so many poor films out there. When the industry complains about loss of its audience, it should consider the product we are asked to rent/purchase.