Director: Scott Mann
Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Dave Bautista, Robert De Niro, Gina Carano, Morris Chestnut, Kate Bosworth, Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 89 minutes
Special Features: N/A
Heist is the latest in a long line of, you’ve guessed it, heist movies. Luke Vaughn (Morgan) is an ex-con/ex soldier who is working himself to death at ‘The Pope’s’ (De Niro) casino in order to pay for a life-saving operation his daughter desperately needs. After falling behind on his mounting medical bills he sees no choice but to join forces with fellow casino employee Cox (Bautista) to steal his much needed money from his heavily corrupt boss. After the heist goes badly (don’t they always) the duo find themselves fleeing aboard a commuter bus full of hostages to use as leverage against the chasing police.
If you read between the lines you’ll see that in many ways Heist is Speed, but with criminals on the bus instead of Keanu Reeves‘ cop. This is the films strength, the sections of the bus are what makes the film a worthy watch amidst all of the other action heist movies out there. The bus is full of every stock character from the scriptwriter bible (lone child, pregnant women, wannabe hero, hysterical female, old man, business man etc) but most thankfully don’t get too much screen time, the time of the bus instead focussing on the disintegration of the relationship between Vaughn and Cox who in essence are strangers. In Vaughn we have the unlikely hero, we want him to succeed in getting away with the crime because he only wants the money to save his daughter. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is as charismatic as ever, his easy charm winning the audience over immediately and he fits the action hero role surprisingly well. In Cox we have your archetypal all-round bad guy whom, having grown up in an unnurturing environment, is all about the money and is rather hot-headed. Dave Bautista was a Bond villain in last year’s Spectre, his character was almost entirely mute, a silent assassin. This was great stylistically and it added menace to the role, but with Heist he has the opportunity to show that he can handle lines as well as conveying that he does indeed have range; there is absolutely no trace of his good guy Marvel counterpart Drax.
The rest of the cast, which includes the legendary Robert De Niro are a little hit and miss. De Niro falls into his default setting of angry mob boss, all the while lamenting the death of the cigarette in favour of the E-cigarette (yes really). His character is never really fully formed, a chance encounter with his daughter (Bosworth) adds nothing and the constant cigarette moans are a little tedious. Morris Chestnut is an interesting choice for De Niro’s head henchmen, but the best supporting character is Gina Carano as police officer Kris. She’s a strong and clever lady and gets the chance to go toe-to-toe with Dave Bautista.
Weirdly for a film called Heist, the actual crime is over pretty quickly. Within the first thirty or so minutes all of that is done with and we’re fully aboard the bus for a traditional cops and robbers chase.
The most frustrating thing about Heist has nothing to do with the plot or pace, which does sadly start to lag towards the end, but is instead down to the cinematography. Never in my life did I think I’d see a film by a director who loved a lens flare more than J.J Abrams, but then I watched this movie. For some unknown reason Scott Mann has at least five lens flare in almost every single scene. It gets so intrusive in places that the lead characters are completely eclipsed. They happen so often that you can’t tell whether the flares are an intentional style choice or just the result of an inept cameraman.
Given the films that made it to the cinema last year with similar plots and themes (The Transporter Refuelled, Wild Card and Hitman: Agent 47 we’re looking at you) were such disappointments, Heist is surprisingly a much better viewing choice. Heist is a watchable action thriller caper.
Heist is available digitally as well as on Blu-Ray and DVD now.
