Bandits Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)October 29th, 2001
"Bandits" – A Marginal Escape
by Homer Yen
(c) 2001
"Bandits" is the kind of film that brings lots of interesting notions. There are elements of quirkiness, romance, humor, and friendship. The tale of two escaped inmates that turn into famous bank robbers has the against-all-odds feel of Bonnie & Clyde and the wackiness of a Ringling Brother's circus. But the film curiously never manages to engage the audience effectively enough to give us a reason to invest ourselves in it.
The film doesn't make a concerted investment in what it truly wants to be. It's tone drifts in one direction and then another. At first, it's quirky-funny as we meet Terry (Billy Bob Thornton) and Joe (Bruce Willis), best friends who are incarcerated for various felonies.
These are two very likable characters. Terry is the kind of person that we can laugh at yet someone with whom we can sympathize. He's meek yet sweet but suffers from acute neurosis. He professes to have a multitude of phobias, constantly hears things, and best of all – succumbs to psychosomatic paralysis. Joe is manic and impulsive. When he sees a cement truck in the prison compound, he brashly commandeers it. Joe, along with Terry, ram through the front gate, careen down winding roads, and plow through the backyards of suburban homes as they make their escape.
However, freedom isn't enough. They need money too, and Terry comes up with a great idea to kidnap bank managers the night before. They'll stay overnight so that they can enter the bank inconspicuously with their hostage before business hours the next morning. They steal lots of money and gain fame as the Sleepover Bandits. These sequences are droll, and the funniest one involves a diminutive elderly manager who is delighted to meet the bandits, invites them to sleep over, but then ultimately refuses to open the cash vault. She knows that they won't hurt a fly. "Come on," pleads an increasingly desperate Joe. "How about $100,000? That amount's insured!"
All is well up to this point, but their future becomes a bit shaky when they run into Kate (Cate Blanchett). This is where the film also begins to waver. She's a bored housewife who falls for Joe because he's brave, raffish, and handsome. She eventually also develops feelings for Terry because he's sensitive and cute. She can't decide and laments that "together, you're the perfect man." She's not sure of who she likes. And the film seems unsure of itself as well. Does it want to be a serious romance or a romantic comedy? And what happened to the quirky-funny angle that it had worked so hard to establish?
Finally, in the last few scenes, the film switches gears, tossing all aside in favor of a serious thriller. Terry and Joe find themselves surrounded by police and at odds with one another. Yes, the scene itself is well executed, but it didn't quite seem to fit.
The feel of the film lacks cohesion and direction. Yet, the acting is competent and many of the individual scenes are enjoyable. But, it's a meandering exercise that may annoy more than entertain. The film doesn't seem to know where it wants to go. Subsequently, we're not sure what we're going to get. With such iffy returns, "Bandits" becomes a questionable investment at best.
Grade: C+
S: 1 out of 3
L: 1 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
