FILM REVIEW; They May Rob You Blind, But They'll Never Shoot (original) (raw)
Movies|FILM REVIEW; They May Rob You Blind, But They'll Never Shoot
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FILM REVIEW
Bandits
Directed by Barry Levinson
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
PG-13
2h 3m
- Oct. 12, 2001
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October 12, 2001
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Section E, Page
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is the best thing to happen to movie bank robbers since nitroglycerin; it provides cinema's larcenous sweethearts with extra gilding for their hearts of gold by insuring accounts for up to $100,000. It's the rationale that Joe (Bruce Willis) and Terry (Billy Bob Thornton) use for their crimes in the shaggy-dog romantic heist comedy ''Bandits.''
The picture feels like modern Classics Illustrated versions of ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' and ''Bonnie and Clyde,'' with Mr. Willis and Mr. Thornton acting in hair pieces that look sheared off a herd of bison; is this a violation of the Endangered Species Act?
The ''Bonnie and Clyde'' comparison is reinforced by Joe and Terry's image as charming bank robbers -- they don't resort to violence. (Their wheel-man, Pollard, a would-be stuntman played by Troy Garity, is a homage to the getaway driver portrayed by Michael J. Pollard in ''Bonnie and Clyde.'') And they get involved in a semi-ménage à trois with Kate (Cate Blanchett), a depressed housewife who ends up joining the boys on their rapidly swelling legendary crime spree.
Joe has the garrulous macho swagger of a guy who's seen -- or starred in -- too many Seagram's Wine Cooler commercials. Terry is a voluble fretter, a man whose hypochondria knows no bounds. ''Together, you're the perfect man!'' Kate bawls. Terry shakes his head and sighs. ''Kate's an iceberg, waiting for the Titanic,'' he says.
''Bandits,'' directed by Barry Levinson, starts with a standoff, a robbery that has gone wrong. Joe and Terry are trapped in a Los Angeles bank, surrounded by the police and television cameras and dressed in egg-white trench coats and scarves that they'd wear to accept their People's Choice Awards. When Terry says glumly that he knows how things will end, it's hard to disagree with him.
''Bandits'' then flashes back to the duo in prison. Joe busts out from sheer boredom, and Terry jumps into the cement mixer truck Joe has hijacked because, well, why not? In a similarly laconic manner, ''Bandits'' lopes from one situation to another.
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