Os Quatro Picaretas

I saw this film for the first time when I was a kid of about 4th grade age. It hooked me then and has stuck with me ever since as an enjoyable, fun, light caper movie. Granted it is not deep, serious or complicated. You do, however, "get your money's worth" because there is more than one caper that gets pulled for the good guys to finally come out ahead. If you are looking for fun adventure with the 70's charm and very little violence and virtually no adult language, give this movie a try.

This was my introduction to my favorite author and his prized creation (under his name anyway) Donald Westalke's John Dortmunder and crew make for a great book, so far thirteen and counting. This movie is based on the first book and one of the best.

I won't get into the plot because it's been gone over before, but Peter Yates and William Goldman crafted a pretty fine entertaining film, it may not be as good as the book (in fact it's not) but it doesn't stray too far, you got Robert Redford who's good in about everything. When i was reading the books at first i pictured him as Dortmunder, but my mental image soon switched to Walter Matthau. Then George Segal is a pitch perfect Andy Kelp, i don't think anyone could have been better. As a gearhead, my favorite character of the series is the driver Stan Murch, and Ron Leibman embodies him perfectly.

Overall the film is much better then other adaptations like "Bank Shot" with George C. Scott, and "What's the Worst that Could Happen?" with Martin Lawrence, and only slightly better than "Why Me?" with Christopher Lambert, and if you haven't read any Donald Westlake, you should. You really should, start with any of the Dortmunder books, and you'll get hooked.

This film is taken from one of a series of books by Donald E. Westlake about John Dortmunder & his various cronies who try to pull off big capers but never quite succeed. Anyone who likes this movie should try picking up the novel it's based on.

If, as other posters have written, Robert Redford has prevented release of this movie on video then that's a shame since this is a very funny & enjoyable crime caper film with some good actors & good New York City locations. Recently, it has been on Cinemax (which I don't have) a couple times so maybe that is a prelude to a future video re-release.

Okay okay, Westlake's novels are always much better than the respective movies (take for example "What's the Worst that Could Happen"), but I must admit that director Peter Yates did a really good job. Dortmunder (the author was inspired to this name by the German beer!) is not much like Donald Westlake's original in the Dortmunder books, along with some of the other characters. Redford is too handsome. George C. Scott in "Bank Shot" was much more Dortmunderish (Westlake's master-crook John Archibald Dortmunder is worn down and pessimistic), but in the "Hot Rock" movie Yates catches the 'Zeitgeist', or spirit of the times. And that's enough.

Brilliant: Quincy Jones' soundtrack (with Gerry Mulligan playing the sax).

From time to time I get a craving for heist movies. And since I have seen most of the popular ones I always am on the search for other heist movies. While this small movie doesn't do anything spectacular I do consider this a classic. Robert Redford is very restrained and pretty serious in this movie. And this added to the hilarious events in the movie which you just have to see to believe it. At one time I even thought it was going to turn into a full mode slapstick comedy with no holds barred. But almost every actor remain straight faced and serious throughout the movie which only added to the fun experiencing this movie. "The Hot Rock" is a typical heist movie that only could have been made in the seventies. But even when the technological aspects in this movie seem outdated it never gets boring. Like any good heist movie you are rooting for the main characters to succeed especially when things don't go the way they planned. This movie has everything you want from a heist movie. And I find it rather strange that this movie is not so well known. A must watch!