Mamet's cerebral thriller is a joy to watch -- this is easily the director's toughest, grittiest drama to date.
Heist (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:125
Fresh:82
Rotten:43
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.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
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.
Reviews for Heist
Smart cinema, with a storyline that holds together and dialogue that stimulates your intellect like other movies’ car chases stimulate your adrenal gland.
Heist is better than The Score, not because it is more surprising or the actorly turns by the principals better realized, but simply because it is better written and the direction is more fluid.
Heist not only reminds us that there's a little larceny in all of us, but reminds us as well how much fun it can be to commune with our inner thief.
The convoluted caper at the heart of Heist is a sure sign that writer/director David Mamet has been trying way too hard.
You'll need 10 minutes to learn the pattern of David Mamet's The Heist, after which it will become a typical shallow caper film.
Heist is the kind of caper movie that was made before special effects replaced wit, construction and intelligence.
The cast is brilliant, the plotting ingenious, the dialogue incendiary.
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