Bandits

December 11, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 123 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Movies For Guys’ Original Review of the Theatrical Release

Bandits

Bandits is one of those movies that defies classification. It contains almost equal doses of comedy, drama, action and even romance. For our purposes, we enjoyed the laughs more than anything else, so we’re going to call it a comedy.

The movie stars Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton as the “Sleepover Bandits”. These two bankrobbers escape prison and come up with a rather unique solution to the problem of how to rob a bank. In order to minimize their chances of getting caught, they kidnap the bank manager the night before and then go in with him early and use his keys and codes to rob the place before anyone else even shows up to get in the way.

Bruce Willis plays Joe, the tough guy of the pair. Billy Bob Thornton plays Terry, the brains of the group. However, despite being the brains of the outfit, Terry is more than a little neurotic which makes for some hysterical situations. This is not just a buddy movie though, as we also have Cate Blanchett playing the love interest, Kate. The love interest of which one? Well, it’s predictable but I wont spoil it.

Barry Levinson does a great job with this movie although it jumps around in the time line almost to an annoying degree at times. Billy Bob cracked us up more than a few times. Some of the neurotic tendancies of the character are borrowed from Thronton’s real life neurosis, which makes it all the more funny for those who are true fans of Billy Bob. Our only fault with the movie is that the romance gets in the way at a few points and makes the movie drag at a couple of points.

Overall though we consider this movie a winner and give it 4 stars. The film is also a very good choice for a date movie. If this movie were released with the summer block busters it would probably go almost straight to video, but this time of year it’s one of the better choices out there. Give it a look, we think you’ll like it.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Billy Bob Thornton, Bobby Slayton, Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, Comedy, DVD, PG-13, Troy Garity