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Heist (2001)
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:17
Rotten:12
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: Heist didn't cover any new ground, but the cast and Mamet's expertise with witty banter make it worthwhile.
Theatrical Release:Nov 9, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $23,287,872
Synopsis: Written and directed by David Mamet, HEIST is a crime thriller that follows aging master thief Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) as he plans one last robbery before literally sailing off into the sunset.... Written and directed by David Mamet, HEIST is a crime thriller that follows aging master thief Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) as he plans one last robbery before literally sailing off into the sunset. What seems like the perfect heist gets complicated, however, when Joe's "business" partner, Bergman (Danny DeVito), insists that his shifty nephew, Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell), join the crew--consisting of Joe's young wife, Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon), and longtime associates Bobby Blane (Delroy Lindo) and Don "Pinky" Pincus (Ricky Jay). A tense battle of wits and wills ensues, leading to plenty of twists and turns before the grand finale. HEIST works wonderfully as a fast-paced, slight-of-hand caper flick. By focusing on dialogue over violence, Mamet allows his excellent script and remarkable cast to shine. Hackman (who seems incapable of giving a bad performance) and Lindo are particularly outstanding and carry the film as deftly as their characters plot their crime. Although the one-last-robbery tale has been told hundreds of times before, it's rarely been told better than this. [More]
Starring: Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay
Starring: Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Pidgeon, Patti LuPone
Director: David Mamet
Director: David Mamet
Screenwriter: David Mamet
Producer: Art Linson, Andrew Stevens, Elie Samaha
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Heist
I couldn’t believe any of it on any level, though it could be described as 'fun.'
This cast is excellent. Heist, though, proves that enormously talented people can make a pretty lousy movie.
The movie is super fun, even if some of its tricks seem to strain credulity.
There's something offensive about how Mamet continues to win praise as a serious filmmaker with such a joyless picture, a picture that -- intentionally -- gives the audience so little.
David Mamet drives us crazy with a characteristically convoluted caper film that's a lot more about attitude and sleight of hand than it is about action. Mischievous, but you really have to go with the flow.
Full of action and suspense, Heist is above all a gratifyingly adult entertainment.
There are dialogue-driven scenes in this movie that will blow you away -- nobody writes like Mamet at the top of his game.
Essentially a genre piece overdecorated with phrases, quirks and narrative slipknots with a mannered look-at-me cleverness.
If it piles on more psychological fake-outs than is safe in a setup this size -- well, at least it's got that talk, that language, that thing Mamet does that is at this point as identifiable as the cadences of the Bard.
Rare for Mamet, that talk here sometimes comes off as strained and awkward, or as a slightly highbrow variation on the usual hackneyed bon mots of generic action films.
Once you recognize that each new development is nothing more than a prelude to another con, any sense of tension is moot.
Heist is the kind of caper movie that was made before special effects replaced wit, construction and intelligence.
Mamet doesn't just give us an enthralling heist flick, he makes the language something to savor.
For fans of The Sting and other classic cons, this will sound like jackpot time. For others, who prefer their capers less tidy or self-consciously clever, this exercise may carry all the excitement of a drugged mouse in a maze.
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