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.

The Hot Rock has a soft spot in my heart because the area of Brooklyn where a lot of the film was shot, I know very well, Eastern Parkway, The Botanical Gardens and most of all The Brooklyn Museum I know very well from years of living in the Borough of homes and churches. The Brooklyn Museum is where the elusive Hot Rock resides or at least where it first resides.

Robert Redford is released from prison and his brother-in-law George Segal is there to greet him. As Redford says to warden Graham Jarvis there ain't no chance in hell he's going straight. Straight into another caper that Segal has lined up for him with Ron Leibman and Paul Sand.

The amiable team is hired by African ambassador Moses Gunn from some fictional central African country to get a national treasure, a rather large diamond on display at the Brooklyn Museum. They do steal the diamond, but through an incredible combination of circumstances have to plan and execute four different break-ins before The Hot Rock is in their hands.

Redford and Segal display a good chemistry, as good as the fabled co-starring chemistry of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Why they were not heralded as a buddy combination is beyond me.

Stealing the film in whatever scenes they are in are shyster attorney Zero Mostel and his doofus of a son, Paul Sand. In the first caper at the museum, Sand gets caught and what he does with the diamond sets up the entire rest of the film.

As for Zero we find he's an attorney with absolutely no scruples whatsoever, the kind they make excellent lawyer jokes about. But he does give us some excellent laughs.

The Hot Rock is something on the order of an American domestic version of Topkapi. The laughs in it are good and strong, although some of the Seventies fashions make me wince. Despite that the film holds up well today. I'm surprised no one is thinking of remaking this one.

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.

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!

Dortmunder (Robert Redford) just left prison and vows to not do another job. He's wrangled immediately by his sister's man Kelp (George Segal) to do a job. Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn) is paying for the heist who claims the gem was stolen from the African people.

The heist isn't sophisticated. There is a lot of Keystone Cops elements in this movie. It's cute bordering on funny. Dortmunder's frustration with Kelp's constant prodding is kind of funny. George Segal, Robert Redford, Paul Sand, and Ron Leibman make for the perfect antidote to the Ocean's movies. These guys make up for the lack of cool with an abundance of bumbling determination. Zero Mostel makes an appearance as Paul Sand's lawyer father. He has a bit fun. The movie is a bit of fun action from the early 70s.