LukasSpathis

Bandit was directed by Allan Ungar, written by Kraig Wenman who adapts from a novel by Robert Knuckle, and stars Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert, Nestor Carbonell, Swen Temmel, and Mel Gibson. It's about the true story of the Flying Bandit, who robbed 59 Canadian banks while being hunted by a police task force.

The Plot: Plenty of movies have been made about the exploits of criminals working their way through a series of banks and stores for curated jewels and currency, and there will be plenty more for things to come. Wenman's rendition though, has one of those "stranger than fiction" stories that's virtually unequivocal to its brothers in the cinemascape.

Reaganomics has taken its toll on America's lower and middle class, with people like Gilbert Galvan Jr. (Duhamel) opting to go the fraudulent route in life, resulting in their imprisonment - in his case - that gets him only 18 months, but that's too long, for him and the movie to linger on. Bandit has a bit of an issue with breezing past certain moments like this that would've been interesting to get at least a couple minutes to grasp, instead it moves onto Canada, with Gilbert donning the alias of Robert Whiteman.

Energy is had in spades, but the movie is able to slow down to track details with Andrea (Cuthbert), who Gilbert takes up with after his arrival. Some months later, Gilbert has to begin getting money the hard way, starting a spree of robberies that require some help as cops Snydes (Carbonell) and Hoffman (Temmel) start a task force to catch the flying bandit. Crime lord Tommy (Gibson) becomes Gilbert's partner as he goes cross-country on a bewildering and sometimes overstuffed streak.

In a vacuum, the plot is decently above average, but with the knowledge that large parts of what Bandit depicts actually happened, it raises itself another notch ahead of other crooks in the business, structural issues or nay.

The Characters: Motives and personality for the lead is fully realized in Wenman's screenplay, which tracks subplots and dynamics impeccably while rarely dipping into cliche, which mostly resides in the side characters.

Gilbert is immensely charming, but he kind of has to be since his skills are limited and his upbringing troubled. Though he tries to do the right thing for almost a full year with relatively limited success, he can't help but resort to the less than legal once he realizes that his relationship with Andrea is going to change. Creativity is by far his strongest asset though; able to think on the fly by creating a new identity, avoiding confrontation with smooth talking, and selling pitches with ease. He makes mistakes, keeping him human, but retains the larger-than-life personality of the man - largely due to Duhamel's fantastic acting.

Andrea falls fast for Gilbert's (Robert to her) charms. The romance that blossoms between them is a little forced, happening over the course of a handful of scenes together, but one the hurdle is cleared, there's a greater understanding to the character. She's not too different from her new flame since she's been burned the same way by the economic shift of the 80s. Her work at a church hostel comes into play for a little while too, as the movie makes mention of the relationship woes that come from Gilbert's "father" and so forth.

Snydes and Hoffman are a familiar duo. The former is fed up with the skyrocketing robberies in the country, angry at the same system that Gilbert is for drastically different reasons. He's willing to cut corners and take a hit to his income if it means catching culprits, whereas Hoffman is the opposite - a straight man with an odd vocabulary that bounces off of Snydes' sarcastic demeanor. All of these characters make for a colorful roster and are exceptionally performed by a who are clearly having a great time playing them.

The Crime: Surreal doesn't begin to describe the criminal antics of Bandit, which benefits from some of the most baffling and comedic heisting I think I've ever seen put to film. Eventually the point is made and these sequences begin to lose their luster, but watching the bizarre ways that both the robber and the cops work is utterly fascinating.

Charting the rise of the notorious thief is a process pulled off with ease by Ungar, who inches Gilbert towards a path of no return by slowly dropping off potential places of employment while a traditional family life begins to take shape. Audaciousness is present before either cop or robber enters a bank, as Gilbert spontaneously bargains with a homeless man for his ID, winning it for a meager sum and carving out a position for himself in the underworld.

Of course, the larceny is the main attraction, and the movie doesn't disappoint. Nervousness permeates the first crime, Gilbert doesn't really know what he's doing, renting a costume and fake nose while pretending he has a weapon to surprising success. His penchant for disguises is clever and endearing, even though most of them look awful (on purpose in the feature but unintentional in reality), even to those he sticks up for the cash. Bandit does eventually manage to escalate beyond these low-end jobs, taking on jewelers for greater reward, but Gilbert remains the same charisma radiator as before - even managing to win over a few frequent faces.

Project Café takes its time to get approved even as the titular character makes headlines, only making Snydes and Hoffman more eager to stop the crook. Their stakeouts give great insight into what it must've been like to be part of the case; watching as different looking guys who drive the same car arrive at Tommy's place and never being able to place any of the pieces in the right positions. Once the task force starts to grapple with the absurd, their investigation gains momentum, re-upping tension when it loses steam.

Criminal actions are in no short supply, and the novelty lasts for the majority of the film, making Bandit quirky in the right ways, even when some of the subject matter leans into familiar territory.

The Technics: Despite being an indie production, Bandit has plenty of stylistics and competent dressing to match its main character. Though it can waver at times due to some insistence to go overboard, it's a strong piece.

Recognizing the silliness of the premise is the best choice that the people behind the movie could've made in service of entertainment value. A lot of the laughs - and there are many - come naturally, but enjoyably campy makeup effects, nice editing from Ungar and Michael Lane, along with the snappy dialogue from Wenman pair superbly with the feature. In different hands, this could've been a silly subject taken too seriously. Sometimes the score can overplay itself in scenes that would've benefitted from the awkward silence of exchanges, the filmmakers had the right idea.

Pacing does become a problem by the last act, as the movie simply runs out of things to do. Cutting some of the extraneous robberies would not only make each one more memorable, tense and funny, but the runtime would've benefitted too, making the movie resemble Gilbert Galvan Jr. In the speed he gets in and out without a hitch.

Stories like this don't get a lot of attention simply because most people don't know how to handle the material. While Bandit isn't perfect in its execution, it's a fun ride bolstered by phenomenal acting and a willingness to embrace the absurdity of it all.

77/100.

Hangman was directed by Johnny Martin, written by Michael Caissie and Charles Huttinger and stars Al Pacino, Karl Urban, Brittany Snow, Sarah Shahi, Chelle Ramos, Steve Coulter, and Joe Anderson. It follows a pair of detectives and an investigative journalist as they try to catch a killer using the game "Hangman" to style his crimes.

The Plot: Both writers definitely saw Seven and took some of the cinematic lessons to heart, such as providing downtime between crimes and showing bursts of violence to emphasize scenes or plot points; but they also neglected more important, general rules of movies like devotion to its own conceit. Detective Ruiney (Urban) has been forced by Captain Watson (Shahi) to take esteemed journalist Christi (Snow) on a ride along to help improve public relations between the police and civilians. This would've been an interesting side effect of what's to come but it's dropped fairly quickly. On their ride along they find a hanged woman with a letter carved into her chest at a slightly dopey staged crime scene, along with the badge number of retired detective Archer (Pacino). From there it's mostly standard stuff as the trio work their way through suspects like Joey (Ramos), the girlfriend of the first victim, and ex-con-turned-reverend Green (Coulter). Once another body is found with a carving the three leads know they have a killer (played by Anderson) and have to stop him before he completes his game. Derivative is a good word to describe the overall plot and where it's going, especially with a flash-forward opening that basically calls out the killer from the get-go, but the journey is passable enough despite some reaches in logic.

The Characters: Unlike the addition of the children's game in the plot and crime element, there aren't any new twists added to the characters in Hangman. Cliches construct the characters but the writers add just enough traits to alleviate the familiarity, like Ruiney (pronounced Rooney) who's suffering after the recent death of his wife (is there another backstory in these movies?) and has his head stuck in that case more than the one he's on. However, when he finds out that her death could be linked to the Hangman, he cracks instead of magically improving, for a time anyway. It's a nice - albeit brief - change, as is the fact that he stepped down from an agency position to go back to homicide. Archer is the more sardonic of the three, showing that he's heard and seen it all until this case. He's smart most of the time, excluding one big stupid decision around 70 minutes in, but can be outdone physically thanks to his age and having been on the force for over two decades. He's nothing special as a character but Pacino does well as one would expect. Christi's character could've been merged into either Ruiney or Archer as she doesn't do much besides answer questions that would logically have been answered by seasoned detectives. Other than her Pulitzer, she doesn't get backstory and is left to embody the dropped PR element. Ruiney and Archer are good enough to keep the movie going but never leave a significant impression.

The Crime: Having a game like hangman as the central premise of a movie is more than a little silly, and the movie doesn't really beg to differ, but it does attempt to ground the game with some kind of realistic tone. Subtlety is also a problem, with Archer explaining that he was once an altar boy, then later on there's a victim in a church being a solid showcase for the scenes favoring supertext. While the mirroring of character traits at crime scenes can be on-the-nose, there are some times where it works, particularly with the second victim who's a direct callback to a moment in Archer's life that makes total sense during the climactic reveal. Interestingly, the killer likes having the cops witness the life leaving the victims, often scheduling, for lack of a better word, their arrival in tandem with the victim's death. Just why that is isn't explained but it does make for an energizing beat that keeps the movie moving at a decent pace to cover up the killer's identity; which, while we're given part of the answer in the first three minutes, is well-kept and makes sense why the trio didn't put all the pieces together until the last act. Suspension of disbelief is definitely required and some of the beats are a little too Seven-y or otherwise overplayed, but the investigation is mostly competent and has a genuinely interesting outcome.

The Technics: Martin is a competent director if nothing else, creating a movie with a pace to cover its average plot elements and admittedly low-brow MO of its killer. Hangman hardly drags and it's never poorly shot by Larry Blanford, with a few shots looking straight-up beautiful. The score, on the other hand, is easily forgotten and could be switched between any number of movies, crime genre or not. Hangman's pacing is mixed. Some scenes transition well with each other, flowing from one crime scene to characters deliberating on possibilities, but others are more abrupt, cutting to all of the characters talking after a close encounter with the killer. It's the most inconsistent aspect of the writing, which already struggled with that aspect, as well as having some occasionally woeful dialogue. Otherwise, the movie that's been served is a well put-together one.

Hangman takes quite a bit from better crime movies and can't match their subtlety, killers, or crimes, but its killer does have a unique MO with a well-guarded identity. Even though most of the movie is familiar, the journey and elevated pace thanks to the antagonist's daily dose of crime is remedied.

63/100.

The Virtuoso was directed by Nick Stagliano, written by James C. Wolf and Stagliano and stars Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, David Morse, Richard Brake, Diora Baird, Eddie Marsan, and Anthony Hopkins. It follows an assassin as he works to uncover the identity of and eliminate his target while avoiding detection from the people surrounding him.

The Plot: It seems as though Stagliano and Wolf have opted to cover some well-worn territory with The Virtuoso, focusing on the exploits of a hitman whose calculating nature is beginning to slip as he takes on another job. What makes this one different is the mystery element surrounding the target. That by itself is nothing new, however, the men have stretched that mystery out to feature length, aspiring to deconstruct the hitman subgenre with mixed results. After taking a job from the Mentor (Hopkins) that doesn't allow for enough time to be taken to do it right, the Virtuoso (Mount) faces collateral damage. He then takes another job from the Mentor, which is a highly questionable decision that could've used more fleshing out, where he gets minimal data. He goes to a quiet town's local diner with the words "White Rivers" his only clue and faces a host of potential targets, including waitress Dixy (Cornish), the Deputy (Morse), the Loner (Marsan), Johnnie (Brake), and Johnnie's Girl (Baird). Now with plenty of options and one of them being an officer, the Virtuoso has to find and kill the target, remain undetected, and make it clean. It's a simple plot, but as the Virtuoso makes clear (I'm paraphrasing here): keeping it simple makes a better job. While that's true for him, the movie deviates and thankfully presents some of the faces as obstacles, adding some opposition and a couple violent encounters to lift a fairly bare plot to decency, even if the conclusion is more than obvious.

The Characters: While the writers chose not to provide names to most of the characters, they do offer behavioral tics and analysis from the Virtuoso that help to identify them, though it's all minimal. The lead himself is an interesting deconstruction of the hitman archetype and subgenre, showing his proficiency with planning and marksman talent in mere minutes. It's effective characterization added to by the noted lack of detachment he has from his job, being visibly shaken when he's faced with a job gone wrong for the first time; but not for lack of trying to dissociate from it. Dixy is something of a siren in that she's got good people skills and remembers the habits of her customers and changes her demeanor according to who she's talking to, especially around the Virtuoso who she wants to get into bed with. The Mentor is known to the Virtuoso, given his name and the knowledge he has of the Virtuoso's father, who he served with in Vietnam; during which time he appears to have knocked a couple screws loose, leaving him a suspect at the end of it all. The others are just options, really. Three of the five get cleared of having knowledge pertaining to the clue and once the last one is left, the movie isn't left with anything but convention.

The Thrills: For around half of the movie, the "White Rivers" question takes center stage, almost converting the movie's primary genre focus into mystery instead of thriller but it never quite makes that transition, instead heightening the threat of the "players" as the Virtuoso becomes more concerned that any one of them might be out to kill him before he can make sense of the little information he was given. Ultimately the movie becomes more about raising the viewer's pulse than raising their eyebrows, which works well enough when delivering its close encounters, sexual when dealing with Dixy's loneliness and "hunger", and violent when dealing with the Loner, Johnnie, his girl, and the Deputy as all of them are shifty. It peaks when offering off-beat sexuality, largely due to the Virtuoso being unsure as to how to react to a woman pushing herself closer to him while he's on the clock, as it were. Large portions of the movie provide some moderate excitement, but the finale isn't anything as interesting since the Virtuoso isn't examining it, he's just recapping what was shown over the runtime.

The Technics: Cinematographer Frank Prinzi and director Stagliano make The Virtuoso something more interesting to look at, keeping the main character in center frame and living in his space, with shots hardly ever leaving his side. It's a solid stylistic choice that, when paired with his narration that breaks down his profession, lends greatness to the movie. However, this decision does poke holes in its own plot, with flashbacks showing the audience things that never happened and only occasionally gets into its lead's headspace. There're no qualms to be had regarding the movie's construction aside from that, it's all very well put together from a technical standpoint. Wasting the talents of David Morse, Richard Brake, and Eddie Marsan while also underutilizing Anthony Hopkins, however, is unforgivable. The script neglects the "players" for a lot of the runtime which dampens the thrills until the finale explains it all in the flattest way it could. Elaboration on those characters and showing rather than telling the audience what "really" happened would've elevated the movie to where it really should be.

Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, and the stylistic choices made by the director, writer, and DoP are the biggest reasons why The Virtuoso works. While it may be obvious where it's going, the encounters the main character has with the others and additive narration are solidly done to keep the journey engaging until the destination disappoints.

65/100.