Bandits (2001)

CRIME COMEDY: (2001, PG-13.) (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (2 hr, 4 min) WARNING: This review reveals plot surprises. Joe Blake and Terry Collins break out of Oregon State Prison, recruit Joe’s cousin, Harvey Pollard, a slow-witted wannabe stuntman as their driver, and start robbing banks. Impulsive Joe and neurotic, hypochondriac Terry wants to steal enough money to retire to Mexico. To rob a bank, they break into the bank manager’s house, stay overnight, and in the morning use him or her to open the vault. They become known as the “sleep over” bandits. Terry meets Kate, a woman who has run away from her husband. She falls in love with both Joe and Terry and begins to participate in the robberies. As they become media figures, it becomes more difficult to rob banks. As their final robbery, Kate turns them in to the police for a $1 million reward while they fake their own deaths. They all get away to Mexico with both the loot and the reward.

VIOLENCE/SCARINESS: Several realistic auto accidents. Some slapstick. The only blood and gore in the film turns out to be faked and part of an escape plan. A realistic boxing match with sparring masks. Considerable shooting during the prison break.

CRIMES: Bank Robbery (U), Car Theft (U), Kidnapping (U), Breaking and Entry (U), Adultery (U), Jail Breaking (U).

MORALS, ISSUES & VALUES: The central characters are unrepentant, unpunished criminals. Kate is apparently sleeping with both Terry and Joe. The characters learn nothing from their experiences and reap the rewards of a life of crime – a retirement in luxury in Mexico. Harvey, a would-be stuntman, is slow, stupid and constantly gets them into trouble – yet they remain loyal to him. Terry and Joe, and later Kate, develop a friendship with deep loyalty. Joe and Terry go to great lengths to perpetrate crimes without violence or the use of guns. They are always courteous to their victims. However, as one bank manager/victim points out, “Good manners do not excuse criminal behavior.” They also believe that they are not stealing people’s money because banks are insured without considering who ultimately pays the insurance premiums. Language: Several scatological references, some mild sexual innuendo, a few anatomical references, a few profanities.

SEXUALITY & GENDER ISSUES: Nuclear families as victims, single parent families among the criminals and dysfunctional families. Contemporary and traditional gender roles. Kate rebels against her passive-aggressive husband, abandoning her life as a frustrated housewife to find a life of crime exciting and rewarding. Kate begins as a hostage and falls in lover with her kidnappers (the Stockholm syndrome). We see Kate in a nightgown (not revealing) with a coat over it. Kate, still married, sleeps with both Joe and Terry (implication only, we see nothing). One bank manager is a woman. Harvey gets the girl of his dreams by picking up a hitchhiker. Joe and Terry break into a house where two kids are having sex having lied to their absent parents. Vaginitis is discussed on a medical advice tape. There is talk of relating the quality of a kiss to the amount of saliva available.

SUBSTANCES: Drinks in a bar. Background smoking. Wine with meals and while cooking.

COMMENTS: Parents must deal with criminal heroes who are not punished and wind up happy and rewarded for their life of crime. The film is an unfocused collection of almost unrelated scenes and can’t seem to set a consistent tone. Few of the heroes’ moral transgression are the source of humor that might give it a lighter moral tone. There are sporadic laughs, but not enough to defuse the moral ambiguities. (Reviewed Oct. 2001)

STARRING: Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton, Troy Garity, January Jones, Rocky LaRochelle, Jaye K. Danford, Bobby Slaton,

ALTERNATES: A far better crime comedy “Whole Nine Yards.”