Bandits (2001) MGM/Action-Comedy RT: 123 minutes Rated PG-13 (some sexual content, language, violence) Director: Barry Levinson Screenplay: Harley Peyton Music: Christopher Young Cinematography: Dante Spinotti Release date: October 12, 2001 (US) Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Troy Garity, Brian F. O’Byrne, Stacey Travis, Bobby Slayton, January Jones, Azura Skye, Peggy Miley, William Converse-Roberts, Richard Riehle, Micole Mercurio, Scott Burkholder, Scout LaRue Willis, Tallulah Belle Willis. Box Office: $41.5M (US)/$67.6M (World)
Rating: ** ½
All these years I thought the crime caper Bandits was an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel when, in fact, it’s not. It bears no resemblance to the book whatsoever. The book is about a jewel thief-turned-mortician and an ex-nun plotting to rob a Nicaraguan colonel of $5 million meant for the Contras. Now that sounds good! The movie, directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man), deals with a pair of escaped bank robbers whose crime spree is interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected accomplice. It sounds better on paper than it actually is.
Structured as a flashback, Bandits begins with the deaths of the protagonists, Joe (Willis, Die Hard) and Terry (Thornton, Sling Blade), during their final job. Right off the bat, you know not to accept this at face value. There has to a twist, right? ANYWAY, we’re taken back to the beginning of their tale when they escape from an Oregon penitentiary by hijacking a cement truck and driving it right through the front gate.
After successfully evading police, the guys hatch a plan to raise the money they need to open their own bar in Mexico. They’re still going to rob banks, but they’re going to do it a little differently. The plan is to kidnap the manager of their target bank the night before and stay overnight at his/her house with the intention of accompanying the manager to work the next morning to steal the money. Using a friend of Joe’s, a dimwitted stunt man named Harvey (Garity, Barbershop), as their lookout/getaway driver, they pull off a series of successful heists. Dubbed “The Sleepover Bandits” by the media, they become national celebrities.
Fate deals Joe and Terry a wild card in the form of Kate (Blanchett, Elizabeth), an unhinged housewife who hits Terry with her car while running away from an unhappy marriage. She drives him to the location where he’s supposed to meet up with Joe for their next job and volunteers to be their hostage. This is where Bandits loses its way.
An oddball love triangle forms as Kate hooks up with Joe before moving on to Terry. Joe bonds with her over their mutual appreciation of Bonnie Tyler’s power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Terry doesn’t like her at first; he thinks keeping her around is a bad idea. That changes after they’re compelled to stay with each other for a couple of weeks between jobs. What are we supposed to make of this? We don’t know because Levinson can’t settle on a consistent tone. Is it romantic comedy or a dark turn of events given Kate’s mental state? Does she like/love both guys or is she just jacking them around? It’s a major misstep for a movie that was fairly entertaining up to this point.
Bandits could have been a good movie if it wasn’t all over the map tonally. At heart, it’s an action-comedy, but doesn’t want to admit it. It’s too whimsical to work as black comedy and too dark to work as light comedy. It borrows an idea from Natural Born Killers with the host of a true crime show being taken hostage by the pair so they can tell their version of their story to the viewing public. It has scenes that are funny but they’re all self-contained. When it sticks to being a crime caper, it’s pretty clever. Unfortunately, the movie’s parts never come together like they should and we’re left with a messy narrative that’s too flimsy to support everything it attempts to do.
It’s not a total loss however. Bandits is semi-saved by solid performances from its three leads. They play likable characters, each one eccentric in his, his or her own way. Willis plays a tough guy who has a way with the ladies. He’s the alpha of the pair. Thornton plays the more interesting character. His Terry is an extremely suggestible hypochondriac with a laundry list of phobias and irrational fears including one of antique furniture. That last one is an actual phobia of Thornton’s. Blanchett’s Kate, a damaged woman with an affinity for Bonnie Tyler, is clearly bipolar. A loveless marriage to a self-involved jerk certainly hasn’t improved her mental state. When he appears on TV to plead for her safe return, he tells the kidnappers to get in touch with his people as he’ll be out of the country on business for the next week. I can see why she ran away from home. The three leads work very well together even if the love triangle angle doesn’t.
Like I said, Bandits has moments of humor. The managers they hold hostage are really something. One of them has a hysterical wife who cries all through dinner even while Terry tries to guess what spices she uses in her spaghetti sauce. Another guy has narcoleptic fits. Then there’s this little spark plug of a woman who’s delighted to see the Sleepover Bandits at her front door. Although a fan, she refuses to open the safe citing that good manners are no excuse for committing crimes. Also, she knows they won’t shoot her.
As much as I like individual aspects of Bandits, I’m not a huge fan of it as a whole. It could have been so much better especially with a talent like Levinson behind the camera. Sadly, it never fully recovers from its detour into romantic whatever. It’s a crime really.
