Band of Robbers

Attempting to adapt Mark Twain's most beloved characters into a modern day story seems like an audacious and terrible idea. But, surprisingly, the indie film "Band of Robbers" manages to pull it off. It has completely captured the essence of the character Tom Sawyer with all of his unrelenting energy, immaturity and imagination. True to form, this 'adult' version of Tom continues to travel through some fantastical version of life, with his every action propelled by a thirst for adventure and glory. In less talented hands Tom might have come off as obnoxious or unrealistic, but Adam Nee is so charming as Tom that he makes you WANT to believe that a person like this can exist. If you have never read Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" or "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," you will have no problem jumping in and enjoying this quirky and fun-loving caper. But if you have read the books, you will be all that much more impressed with what writers and directors Aaron and Adam Nee have achieved.

Band of Robbers is a modernized version of the story of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and makes it more of a gangster story. It follows Tom and Huck as they search for an ancient treasure while that same treasure it been searched for by another man.

Let me start off by saying that I don't actually know the original Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn story, nor did I know that this was a modernization of said story until at least a day after watching it. Regardless, the source material for a movie doesn't affect my opinion of it whatsoever, but it just means that I would have had less of an idea of what was going to happen going in.

Band of Robbers is a fun movie. There was one scene in particular involving an early robbery that made me laugh a little harder than a probably should have. There are a handful of other jokes scattered about, but this scene specifically stood out to me. Also the movie does a great job of balancing both fantasy and realism. The movie's setting is realistic, yet the plot is more of a fantasy with the characters looking for buried treasure. Yet it all fits into the universe very well, nothing about that really feels out of place.

Despite these things this movie is very cliché and a little predictable. It often indulges in a handful of clichés that probably wouldn't have changed the story that much, and simply exist because the average movie watcher expects them to be there. Not all of these scenes were entirely pointless, but without all the things that I liked this movie would be very average.

Overall Band of Robbers is good. There are some very genuine laughs here and there and it manages to blend fantasy and realism very well. It suffers from being cliché and often predictable, but in the grand scheme of things was an enjoyable movie. In the end I would recommend this movie.

I just saw an "on-demand" showing of this movie at our downtown relic independent theater (the old Wurlitzer is still there from way back when!)The father-in-law of one of the leads was a high school friend, and a neighbor, and word spread through the grapevine asking everyone in our class to recruit three or four more friends to go along. We almost filled the enormous old theater! This movie is amazingly well done, and being done on a very tight budget made it all the more interesting. How did they do so much, so creatively and so well? The friend told us it had been considered for Sundance, receiving several nominations. It will be on Netflix soon, so look for it! And if you watch it through a haze of some premium bourbon, it would be even better!

This could have went so wrong. I'm thinking of when they did this in Hook and turn Peter Pan into an adult, but Band of Robbers works really well.

The acting was superb. So was the writing. From the moment you see Huck Finn and Tom on the screen you got the feeling of two dudes who never out grew who they were as children and it was fantastic.

Tom and Huck still looking for treasure and adventure and they seem not to care about who gets in there way.

As a whole, the movie was a great expedience to watch. It was a quirky funny and a little dark.

i saw it at MoA afternoon matinée wed the 20th. perfect setting for an enoyable day this movie was made with passion and tlc--clearly observable.

love to feed the indy movie scene? no put intended. go see Band of Robbers. delightful spin on the old huck fin / tom sawyer story. two seasoned leads did a fantastic job: kyle gallner and adam nee (who was actually in an episode of SatC) who was also co writer and co director.

i'm not usually a big fan of silly movies but i don't pass up mgg. ever. though his role was supporting, his character was hilarious and it was fun to see him play the opposite of reid. plus the short joggers and tank tops are not to miss.

BaR was super cute and entertaining quite a few funny laugh out loud moments. if you need a light airy movie on a cold winter's too hot summer's day, i indeed recommend.