A cheerful, energetic, and completely entertaining movie, The Bank Job follows some small-time hoods who think they've lucked into a big-time opportunity when they learn a bank's security system will be temporarily suspended--little suspecting that they're being manipulated by government agents for their own ends. The result is that the movie doubles its pleasures: While the robbery itself has the usual suspense of a heist film, when the robbery is over the hoods find themselves being hunted by the police, the government, and brutal criminal kingpins who were storing dangerous information in a safety deposit box. The Bank Job won't win any awards, but it's enormously fun. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Species) propels the action along with vigor, editing zippily with perfect clarity among multiple storylines and various colorful characters. Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter), as the leader of the bank robbers, successfully steps away from his usual bone-crunching roles to a more human presence. The rest of the cast--including Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet), David Suchet (Poirot), and many faces familiar from British film and television--give their characters the right degree of personality and flavor without getting fussy or detracting from the headlong rush of the story. A little sex, a lot of action, a sly sense of humor, and a twisty plot; if more movies had these basic pleasures, the world would be a happier place. --Bret Fetzer
Popularity: 9% [?]
Street Kings is the story of a rogue crew of LAPD cops that managed to find a way to have free range of the city of Las Angeles. Having free range means that they could practice questionable police tactics without having fear of recourse or fear that they themselves will ever go to jail.
Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a veteran LAPD cop who finds life difficult to navigate after the death of his wife. He plays a LAPD detective that has made a career of staying above the law. That entails framing suspects, beating up informants, or even killing people that have gotten in his way that deserved it. For a long time this method of police work seemed to not have an issue with him. Until he finds out that his ex partner was going to rat him out over past police dirt that he had.
This pisses him off, but he gets pissed off even more after a two man crew of thugs decide to kill is ex partner right in front of him. In the maly he is unable to defend off the thugs and save his partner. Afterwards, the department just chalks it up to a loss and attempts to bury the case in paperwork without finding the people that perpetrated the crime. With this crime lingering on his mind and revenge on his heart he starts to find similarities in the crime that start to lead him to question the loyalties of everyone around him, from the captain to the Lieutenant to the next in line officer in his unit. Ultimately, he finds that everyone does have his back until he starts to mess with the status quo that has been built over the past 8 or more years. Soon the hunter becomes the hunted and all hell breaks loose.
I am not a great Keanu Reeves supporter but I have to say that I enjoyed Mr. Reeves in this movie. His personality is not brutal but when force is needed he has what it takes to take care of business. Although, I felt that he was a evil character in the beginning he turned out to be a stand up guy that just needed to know the truth about his ex partner. And in the end it changes his focus to the job of being a police detective and ultimately changes him back to a cop that will fight for what is right. Not, what pays the most.
This movie is not for the weak at heart. So, I would not expect to have children or young adults take a look at this movie. There is a lot of gun fighting and death shots. But it is what it is, a great chiller cop movie with a lot of twists along the way.
Popularity: 6% [?]
I sit back and think of why someone would say that this movie was slow in the beginning or that the last few minutes of the movie were not needed. I believe that every part of the movie was significant to first lead up to how certain characters ended up being who they are.
American Gangster is a story about Frank Lucas one of the most powerful and feared New York crime bosses between the 1960’s and the 1970’s. In New York he was even more powerful than the mafia. During that time Lucas reportedly amassed a fortune of more than $52 million in less than a decade taking advantage of the rise of heroin in the crime stricken New York area.
It was said that Frank Lucas ruled with an iron hand and kept his people in fear in order to make them do what he wanted them to do. Denzel Washington definitely portrayed the iron hand of Frank Lucas. He showed how far he was willing to go in order to keep his streets profitable and in his control.
The story starts out with Frank Lusas (Denzel) as the driver of another drug boss who passed the rings over to Frank Lucas in real life after he died. To Frank this man was like his father. He taught him everything that he needed to know in order to maintain the business when he left. After his mentor dies he begins to contemplate how he could continue the business how he was going to collect all the bad debt that other crime figures owed his old boss. While in this phase he thinks of a way to purchase his drug of choice from an outside source instead of buying from the mafia. He put together a network that would fly pure heroin into New York; he would cut it up and distribute it to separate districts of New York for distribution. He also supplied other connections to ship his product to other parts of the United States. All the while a detective named Ritchie Roberts played by Russell Crowe finds that a lot of people are overdosing on Franks product and is assigned to a unit who’s sole purpose is to bring down major drug bosses. Frank is at that point put in the cross heirs of Ritchie Roberts.
This was a powerful movie that had me thinking of how Frank could have been a rich man in his own right if he did not have a lethal drug as his product. Russell Crowe also plays a very convincing determined cop that finally finds out who Frank was and tracks down his whole network to bus Frank. This is not a kid’s movie. I would not recommend taking any children or teenagers to see this movie. This is strictly an adult movie with adult themes. But it is a must see.
Be sure to check other great movies today!!
Popularity: 7% [?]
