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Bandits swipes bits and pieces from better movies, but it never finds its own tone.
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 11, 2001
Bandits stole two hours from my life, leaving behind circumstantial evidence of what could have been a better movie.
Actually, this uneven caper has been a better movie several times before, in Dog Day Afternoon, The Sting, Bonnie and Clyde, The Fortune, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and other anti-hero adventures from a generation ago. Director Barry Levinson isn't a hack, so this must be homage. Yet, borrowing from those films serves only to expose the lack of pacing and charisma in Bandits, as if mere quirkiness is enough.
Despite the frisky appeal of its preview trailers, Bandits is a fairly downbeat film. It becomes obvious in the opening minutes that bank robbers Joe (Bruce Willis) and Terry (Billy Bob Thornton) are doomed. Neither is especially likable, a sourpuss and a hypochondriac, respectively. They're inmates at the same prison when the movie begins, and there's never any logical reason these two would be buddies anyway.
They escape, first in a cement truck, then switching to one of those retro PT Cruisers: Levinson's way of elbowing the audience into the Bonnie and Clyde comparison. Nothing about the filmmaker's cinematic nostalgia is subtle, not the car chases or botched robberies or criminal celebrity or the "gotcha" finale. The movie becomes a check-off list rather than entertainment.
Joe and Terry become known as the Sleepover Bandits because they invade the homes of bank presidents, then force them to open the vaults in the morning. They're uncommonly polite, making them media folk heroes, leading to some frustrating encounters with adoring victims. Bandits is a farce conceived as a serious film, taking the edge off humor and blunting all tension because we know how the story ends.
Cate Blanchett plays Kate, an ignored housewife we meet while she's ardently lip-synching Holding Out for a Hero, another obvious move by Levinson. Kate is a willing hostage, attracted by Joe's assertiveness and Terry's gentility. There is no honor or fidelity among these thieves.
Levinson's structuring of Bandits is a sticking point, starting at the near-end and flashing back and cross-cutting with an insignificant interview Joe and Terry give to an alarming TV reporter (Bobby Slayton). They're talking tougher than their actions truly were, but that wan joke, like so much material, gets lost in the time shuffle.
The performances are good, with Thornton achieving some choice moments when Terry's paranoia peaks. Willis' stony mumble suits Joe the way he's written, too aloof for viewers to embrace. Blanchett's eager oddness can be charming or irritating depending upon the circumstances. She embodies the movie, neither comedic nor dramatic but something strange and unsatisfying in between.
Grade: C+
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Troy Garrity, Bobby Slayton
Screenplay: Harley Peyton
Rating: PG-13; violence, profanity, sexual situations
Running time: 125 min.