I love a good con or crime movie. I don’t like crime in real
life but to watch a plot unfold on film is a treasure. No one gets hurt, good
guys usually win one way or another and everyone goes home safe and sound. A
good, solid crime film provides enough escapism to keep us entertained and when
touched with enough realism to make us wonder holds us till the end of the
film. HEIST has some of those trademarks that make it worthwhile but one item
that takes it down a notch or two.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as Vaughan, a card dealer on The
Swan, a big gaming water bound casino owned by Pope (Robert DeNiro). Vaughan
has seen better days but his major concern at present is his daughter. The
young child has a disease that has placed her in the hospital but with
insurance not covering her long term care and her about to be taken off a
waiting list due to payments not made, Vaughan becomes a desperate man.
He approaches Mr. Pope about a $300,000 loan which Pope
denies. During this back and forth it comes out that Vaughan was Pope’s right
hand man at one time, destined to take over when he stepped down. The problem
was that he developed a conscience, something Pope’s new protégé Dog (Morris
Chestnut) doesn’t seem to have. After a yelling match Vaughan is fired and
escorted off the boat.
Unable to come up with the money the way he hoped, Vaughan
instead takes up Cox’ (David Bautista) offer to help with a robbery of the
casino. It seems Cox has noted that the casino is laundering money for the
Chinese mob and knows when a big haul is available. Vaughan has the code for
the vault for one more day and a plot is laid out to rob the casino.
But as they say, the best laid plans… Dog is on board the
boat when the heist goes down and takes his men along with numerous machine
guns to put a halt to it. When gunfire erupts, Cox’ wheel man drives off with
the getaway car. Another is wounded during the gun battle. Left on foot the
trio make a run for it and take over a city bus and all those on board. Trying
to keep things down low Dog backs off.
The movie seems to turn into a hostage film here with
several twists. The police are in pursuit of the bus filled with kidnap
victims. The bad guys are involved in trying to find ways to get the thieves to
return the money and kill them. And the thieves are trying to simply survive
with the hope of making a run to a friendly fly by night airstrip where Cox has
a friend willing to fly them out of the country. Just who comes out on top is
yet to be seen and more than one character has a few tricks up their sleeve to
play before it all ends.
The movie works best when it sticks to the plotline it has
going, a heist film with numerous twists. There are plenty of those involved
here, enough that you won’t see most of them coming. That portion of the film
is well written and well thought out making this a movie that I can highly
recommend on that alone. The script then becomes the best and the worst of what
we have here.
It becomes the worst when it comes to what I consider lazy
screenwriting. An actor can be allowed to portray his character to the point
where you know just who he is. He can carry menace with nothing more than a nod
of the head. But here the screenwriters felt the need to portray unscrupulous
evil by dropping the “f” bomb on about every third word. While I’m not offended
I find it unnecessary and overused when done this way. It detracts from a
character rather than develops one. When it’s overused it becomes far too
noticeable and boring.
Speaking of actors there are some great performances here.
Standing above the rest is Morgan. I first became aware of Morgan as the father
of the Winchesters on SUPERNATURAL. Since that time I’ve seen him in numerous
roles and he always shines. He does so once more in playing Vaughan. DeNiro
always does a great job. So much has been written about him that doing more
isn’t needed. Bautista does a fine job as well. Having moved from the world of
the WWE and into acting he seems to be doing well for himself between this role
and the one he recently landed in the James Bond SPECTRE film.
In the end the
movie is well worth watching, entertaining and filled with surprises. If you
can get by the language you’ll find a crime film that holds up with some of the
best but that will more than likely be forgotten since it never played
extensively and seems to have landed up on straight to DVD and pay cable.
That’s a shame because the potential shown here is more deserving. If you like
crime movies then by all means, give this one a watch.
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