Great Heists
How well does this heist comedy work, particularly as we go through all four heists? Does Robert Redford work well in an ensemble cast? Why did this Peter Yates film fail at the box office? Tune in to this week’s member bonus episode to get answers to these questions and more!
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Is ‘Locked Down’ the COVID heist comedy we need right now? And is it even a heist comedy? Or more of a relationship dramedy? The Film Board convenes to break it apart to see if the whole worked as well as the sum of its parts. Tune in!
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Stanley Kubrick’s 3rd film, “The Killing,” was a box office bomb due to a poor release plan from United Artists and virtually no marketing. Luckily, the film was critically praised and has grown in stature since its release in 1956. It’s a film noir about a race track heist gone wrong with the fantastic Sterling Hayden leading the charge, and the last film in our Heist series. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we finish this series with Kubrick’s early classic.
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Give his largest budget and a script that’s more of a genre film than anything else Lee’s done before, he managed to create a wild heist film with a great twist ending.
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Ben Affleck made a smart move when he decided to start directing films. He had made some bad career moves as an actor and was fizzling out. With his 2007 directorial debut “Gone Baby Gone,” he proved he had chops — and that they weren’t in acting. He’s a great director. With “The Town,” his 2010 heist film, he again shows he knows how to write and direct a great film, and can still act as long as he’s in the right material. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Heist Series with Affleck’s great bank robber film.
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There’s something interesting about heist films because, generally, you’re rooting for criminals to pull off a heist and criminals usually aren’t who you’d expect to be your protagonist. But watching Roger Donaldson’s 2008 heist film The Bank Job, based on the real Baker Street Robbery in London 1971, you can’t help but root for Terry Leather and his imperfect gang as they not only rob the bank and pull off one of the biggest scores in London’s history, but actually get away with it too. Maybe that’s because the people after them are all much worse, and maybe that’s because you can’t help but side with Terry played wonderfully by Jason Statham. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we start our Heist series with this great movie.
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It’s a Very Special Episode for this month’s Film Board gathering. Today on the show, Steve Sarmento and Chadd Stoops join Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to take on the great Next Reel Crossover with *Now You See Me* — a magical heist film of skeptic proportions.
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When people list off caper films, it’s a long list that comes to mind – Ocean’s Eleven, Rififi, The Killing, The Ladykillers, Kelly’s Heroes, The Italian Job, The Usual Suspects, even more recently Inception – but the film that really kicked it all off was 1950s masterpiece, The Asphalt Jungle. John Huston co-adapted W. R. Burnett’s novel and turned it into one of his greatest directorial achievements, a story of a group of criminals working hard to pull off the perfect heist only to have everything fall apart in the end.
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After his father fired him from 20th Century Fox and a short stint at Warner Bros., Richard D. Zanuck joined forces with his buddy David Brown from his Fox days and the two joined forces as the independent producing duo under the banner The Zanuck/Brown Company. For their first film? They found possibly one of the greatest scripts ever written – David S. Ward’s “The Sting” – attached George Roy Hill to direct with Paul Newman and Robert Redford heading up the stellar cast, and ended up producing the Best Picture winner of 1973, as well as one of the greatest films ever made. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – this week for the second in our Richard D. Zanuck series as we discuss (and maybe gush a little bit because of our overwhelming love for this film) everything that makes “The Sting” great.
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