Customer Reviews

Heist

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

This is Gene Hackman's character expounding on what exactly he plans to do in regards to the job at hand.And on its ear he puts it,not only to his fellow film characters but more especially to we the viewers.This Nov/2001 released film is what I would call a definite sleeper which I wish had gotten more exposure at the time,and which still stands up as one heck of a film.
The story starts out with some seemingly unrelated business involving Joe(Hackman)out for some innocent hunting,taking notes of some kind and walking away.The scene then switches to the big city where Joe and his crew Bobby(Delroy Lindo),Pinky(Ricky Jay)and Fran(Rebecca Pidgeon)are all heavily involved in quite the complicated upscale jewelery store heist.Once inside the store a snag occurs when one of the employees has failed to be pre-drugged and is up walking around.Joe must Tazer her but in the process he is caught on the security cameras.While his buddies go to work getting the goods Joe desperately tries to gain access to the locked security hardware but fails.
Now facially tagged by the police he believes he must retire out of the business.When he brings the goods to his fence Mickey(Danny Devito),Mickey takes advantage of the situation to bring him back for one more job;to rob a Swiss plane of its gold.Having no choice this is about when Joe says he will stand the job on its ear and we watch as Joe's plan unfolds;using sleight of hand as his play book.As an insurance policy Mickey sends his nephew Jimmy(Sam Rockwell)along as his eyes and ears to see nothing goes awry.During a preliminary set up of the inital plan an "argument" breaks out between all of the conspirators and a seeming break up occurs between Joe and Bobby because of Jimmy's sloppiness and naiveté.It's a ruse to get Jimmy out of the picture for a while while they shore up the real plans.Jimmy of course eventually comes back but Fran has been sent to infiltrate Mickey's camp acting as a kind of traitor against Joe and playing Jimmy.
The airplane heist goes off like clockwork.All details are finely played out,even to the extent of taking out of the equation a security supervisor who believes Joe is working for the FAA,so they can more easily get past and take over the initial security post.The seemingly unimportant hunting expedition at the beginning of the film now comes into focus as we see it was near the airport border.They had pre-planted an explosive device which now goes off as the Swiss place is taxiing the runway.Disguised as security men they rush out and board the plan and disable the crew.This allows access to the cargo hold and the gold they seek.
As they are leaving Jimmy double crosses Joe,knocking him out and he and Fran leave the airport with the van full of loot.Along their escape route they have a near miss accident and end up against a tree.The cargo is partially spilled out and when Jimmy goes to check its contents he finds they are nothing but boxes filled with metal washers.Fran meanwhile has jumped out and hailed a passing truck to escape.Later that day Joe returns as a business man to the airport to take his cargo which he says must be personally taken to a customer or it is his job.The cargo?...metal washers.The boxes are still there with the "company logo" on them,but as Joe and we now know,it is the real gold inside those cases.
Later back at Joe's boating business he and Bobby are busy smelting down the gold bars.The plan seems to be to take the gold and run for it;stiffing Mickey.Still later that day Fran stops by to pay a visit and a rendezvous is established.Joe puts alot of rubbing into the seemingly brass fittings on the boast and sails to meet Fran.In the meantime Mickey has gotten a confession not only from Fran but from Pinky,who he kills.When Joe meets Fran he also has to confront Mickey and his boys.When Mickey demands the gold a shoot out occurs with Mickey and the boys going down for the final count.His boat has been set adrift during the fire fight and a chagrined Joe watches as it drifts away.
Back at his boating store he is busy painting a pick up truck full of metal rods.Fran and Jimmy show up and steal the pick up and its contents away.Apparently with nothing left Joe gets into another pick up truck sitting in the garage,which also has metal rods in it.While leaving a protruding piece scratches against the garage door revealing the bright gold colour beneath the paint.He drives away smiling.
This film has more twists and turns to it than the drive up to Pike's Peak.In fact even at the end we don't really know whether this was just another ruse by Joe to distract Jimmy.Will Fran meet Joe down in the Caribbean eventually? The twists are inherent in the script and are designed to fool both the characters and we the viewers;and it works tremendously well.It has been sometime since I have watched this film and I must say it has retained it's punch well.The great thing about this film over and above its superior script and its taut directing is that there is not a moment of unwasted footage in this film.Every second has some meaning and purpose behind it and the 109 minutes of its run go by very,very fast.If you don't have to look at your watch once during a films run you know you have a good one on your hands.
Technically speaking this DVD has been transferred quite nicely in its' 1:85:1 a/r and everything is clear and crisp.The only extra on it is the trailer.
In conclusion this movie is one heck of a ride and wonderfully directed,written and acted by all concerned.Its a very smart film that constantly keeps the audience on its toes from beginning to end.What you see isn't always what you get.I recommend this movie highly.

Unfortunately, HEIST, one of the best films in the crime genre, isn't better known and liked precisely because it is so intelligent and depends on characterization and dialogue for its power rather than on violence and special effects.

HEIST revolves around an aging master thief, Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) who decides to retire when he gets "burned," i.e., gets caught on videotape while pulling a job. When Joe meets with his eccentric boss, Mickey (played to perfection by Danny DeVito), however, Mickey talks Joe and his crew into pulling one more job...this time in Switzerland. And, to make sure Joes goes along with what he wants, Mickey refuses to pay Joe until the Swiss job is complete.

Joe and his crew have no choice but to agree to Mickey's demands, one of which is that his nephew, Jimmy, join the heist. Mamet has set the stage for twists and turns and crosses and double crosses and triple crosses and he certainly delivers. This is an intelligent film that keeps the viewer a little off balance, but not so much that he gets confused.

HEIST is a slower-paced crime film that depends on the interaction among its characters for its success. Danny DeVito does a wonderful job playing a greedy "bad guy" and he's so convincing he manages to steal more than one scene. Hackman, however, as the aging Joe, is the character who really pulls HEIST together and defines it. This is truly "his" film and he makes the best of it.

Anyone who's ever studied creative writing of any kind knows that "good" dialogue is usually transparent; it is conspicuous by its inconspicuousness. Mamet, however, is different. He's edgy and his dialogue defines his work in more ways than one. This is true, for the most part, in HEIST, although there were a few places when I thought a phrase was a bit clumsy or flat.

HEIST probably will never get the large audience it deserves, but that's okay. It has won the critical acclaim it deserves. If you're looking for mindless entertainment, better give HEIST a pass. This is, above all, a quirky character study and it's really only for the intelligent viewer.

A thriller that never ends thickening the plot to a somewhat sickening level. There is always an extra-solution, an extra-development to the plan ? and the solution that comes next is never the last. In the end we cannot know the real outcome because a door is maybe open, or half open, and yet it is not quite there. One thing is sure, the gold is navigating from one place to the next and then to another to end up in the hands of those who deserve it. But is it the end ? We cannot say. And why should those who get the gold in the end deserve it ? We cannot tell.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

"Heist" is, well, an heist movie like so many others. This one goes completely by the book and is uninspired at all levels. Gene Hackman gives a standart, average performance as the burglar who starts having problems with his mates. This is a "who fools who?" picture, it has some required though predictable twists at the end and the character motivations remain unclear. In fact, the characters themselves remain unclear, since they don`t speak all that much and the dialogue is poor. Acclaimed director David Mamet glues scene after scene with little creativity, so most of them turn to be boring and lifeless. This just seems like a weak episode of some late-night cable b-tv series. Dull, unsurprising and shallow, one to avoid.

If you're looking for an action movie with a lot of noise and a bunch of heroes with no brains, skip David Mamet's HEIST. It will disappoint you. But if you like movies with a point of view, movies you can rediscover every two or three years like a good book, buy this DVD which deserves to stay in any movie lover's library.

Nothing is gratuitous in HEIST, every scene has a meaning the viewer is asked to understand. So, apart of enjoying the story told by David Mamet, I've spent a lot of time, during the movie, wondering WHY the director has chosen not to show certain scenes that would have been obligatory with another director, WHY the movie is literally invaded by all kind of pipes from the first to the last scene, WHY Gene Hackman is smiling at the end of the movie and so on.

I admit it, I simply love the films that make me think, the films that keep me intellectually active. Such movies are hard to find nowadays so let's cherish them when we have this opportunity. Too bad though that the DVD presents no special extras. I would have greatly appreciated a Mamet's interview.

...But overall this is a clunker mainly due to Mamet's slow pacing. Hackman gives one of his best performances and Delroy Lindo is excellent in a supporting role. I also enjoyed Ricky Jay a whole lot but he is always good (i.e. Boogie Nights, narrator of Magnolia). The major problem with this film is that the pacing is much too slow for a film of this type. A "heist" flick should not simply plod along from scene to scene. I was also surprised at how boringly photographed the film was considering it was shot by PTA's DP Robert Elswit who I think also shot one of the recent Bond films so there is absolutely no excuse for this film to feel slow at any time.

Mamet's movies are usually pretty dialogue-heavy, full of twists and turns, and fairly macho. Heist was all of that, but I still came away disappointed.

The dialogue was awkward and contrived at times, with klunkers like "quiet as an ant pissing on cotton" and "cute as a bucket full of kittens." All right already with the lame similes. The relationships were almost believable, until the end. I'm afraid the end was not believable, nor was it satisfying.

I guess I thought this would be an Ocean's 11 sort of caper, but it was a little grittier than that, with all of the plot contortions, but none of the charm. It is not the sort of movie you would walk out on, but Mamet has done better. Try State and Main instead.

Gene Hackman shines as always in a fantastic crime caper aptly
called "Heist" Hackman plays Joe, A professinal theif/con artist
who he and is crew are experts in their field. During a daring
Jewlery store robbery Joe gets burnt on camera while trying to silence an eyewitness to the robbery and realizes it's time to move on from the life of crime and move down south with his boat
and young wife. But his boss Mickey(Danny Devito) refuses to give Joe the cash from the last heist & wants joe & his crew to do one last difficult heist of Swiss Gold from an airplane heavely guared by armed sercurity. The film consists of cross/
doublecross/triplecross and trademark mamet verbal brilliance
makes Heist a winner in all scores. Hackman at age 70 can still
pull it off and this is some of his best work since he, devito
and Delroy Lindo Shared the spotlight in 1995's Get Shorty.
But what really makes this film work is the chemisty Hackman &
Lindo are so good & belivable in ther roles it makes
the viewer beileve the two men have been in the crime game for many years I can't say enough good things about this movie I love it and seeing it on DVD is even better. If you like a good
old fashion crime thriller where nothing & no one is who or what they seem then Heist is the film to watch.

I saw 'Heist' again the other night - this time it was playing on a television screen at a gym. I didn't like the film first time I saw it. Thank goodness it was part of a double-feature with 'Spy Game.' At least that redeemed my evening.

Heist didn't improve the second time around either. Especially since this time, it played with subtitles. As ridiculous as David Mamet's rat-a-tat-tat dialogue sounds coming out of the mouths of Gene Hackman and Mamet's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, it looked even *more* ridiculous captured in subtitles. 'My (insert obligatory Mamet crudity here) is so cool that when he sleeps, sheep count him.' 'Everybody likes money. That's why they call it money.' Who talks like that?

Watch that stuff pop up on the bottom of the screen, and after five minutes and it becomes rather humorous. Like two guys having a go at a Mamet competition. Let's see who can out-Mamet the other.

The story itself is typical Mamet. There's a con, a bigger con, a twist, a reversal, a reversal of the reversal, and then - (surprise!) - a reversal of the reversal of the reversal. Guys get killed left and right, left on docks, nobody clears the bodies, nobody investigates, nobody gets caught.

I'll stick to films where Mamet contributes as a writer (e.g., 'Wag the Dog') and stays out of the Director's chair.

If you like great action and strait up fun then this movie is not for you. While this movie is one of the best I have ever seen, you must be ready to pay atention. I think the action is there too but the plot is amazing. It is one of those movies you need to watch twice to see all the intricut plot twists. The cast is very cohesive and overall does an amazing job of setting up one of the most amazing crimes I have ever seen. The real plot however lies in the end where everyone is trying to get away with the gold.