Review of Heist (2015) by Ethan J — 28 May 2017

'HEIST' was directed by Scott Mann, stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Robert De Niro and Dave Bautista and is the story of a desperate man(Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his partner(Dave Bautista) who attempt to rob seasoned Casino owner(Robert De Niro). This seems to go well, but as the getaway escalates into a hostage situation, the police get involved and De Niro's men begin to hunt down Morgan and Bautista.

? I think that every good heist movie should start with a motive, follow with a setup, climax with an impossible job and end with a cheeky wink to the camera and rough explanation of how it was all done. This movie attempts one of these traits. You may argue that this is a bit too formulaic and not sticking to this is a strength to the movie. I would usually be inclined to agree if it went totally left field and tried to do something that didn't payoff. The main strength(s) of every great heist film is the story or the action. Films like 'Ocean's Eleven' has a phenomenal story whereas 'Fast Five' has some stupid, fun action. You have those like 'Now You See Me' who stray in No Man's Land which just serve as pure entertainment. This movie achieves at none of them feats. The story is weak and all motivations for the characters were just poorly written, Attempts at action were pretty shaky and didn't fit with the rest of the movie and there is very little entertainment to be had with a movie that just takes itself way too seriously and is actually kinda depressing.

OK so the story was mediocre, the action poorly done and the tone was just wrong, but that doesn't mean there were NO positives in the movie. To start, De Niro was actually pretty good in the movie. Not at the height of his power and definitely not at a level were I actually think he cared but he was still fine. Mark Paul Gosselaar was also pretty energetic for the first half of the scenes he was in and provided a more 'Heist' film performance which fell more in line with what the tone should have been. Needless to say he wasn't good as the story progressed and he loses all charm he had in the first half but nevertheless, he was still a strength for a duration of this thing. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was not at all good as Vaughn. He tried to play the likable, cool headed thief opposed to Dave Bautista's more aggressive, psychotic thief but it didn't pay off. What's more is that you know nothing about Vaughn other than a plot device they include at the start and use as a reason for us to like him but it doesn't work. I liked him more than Cox(Dave Bautista), sure but that wasn't really an achievement. Gina Carano was also pretty poor as Officer Kris and her character made no sense whatsoever.

Another flaw the movie can add to its list was how poor the cinematography was. The 'action' scenes were horrifically shot and most of the other scenes were just slow pans. I've definitely seen worse and it wasn't a main reason the movie failed but it was still a flaw and something that needed to be addressed.

Heist movies need to provide a fun and engaging heist as a primary rule. This movie delivers about 2 minutes of that. The entire heist of this film is shown over a space of TWO minutes! Even the explanation at the end was poorly done and felt forced. There was literally no setup and I know you can argue that breaking the formula is good and refreshing but the way this movie does it is just bad. It felt like it wanted to follow but it was also trying to distance itself from it as much as possible.

In conclusion, I can't really say this movie is worth your time and there isn't really anything that you might enjoy.

2/10.