Joe Blake and Terry Collins are a couple of convicts in an
Oregon prison until one day--just on the spur of the moment--Joe decides to steal
a cement truck from the prison yard and make a break for it. Terry, who is a
major hypochondriac, goes along with Joe for the ride of his life. Switching the
cement truck for a car--which Joe takes from its female driver with only the
greatest of courtesy--they ride into town, where Joe, once again on the spur of
the moment, abruptly decides to rob a bank using only a magic marker. Hiding out
in a house, Joe and Terry try and figure how they can get the money needed to
set themselves up in Mexico.
Terry gets the idea of going to a bank manager's house the night before the
robbery and placing him or her under "house arrest" until the next day. They go
to the bank the following morning, taking the manager's family with them, and
then taking the entire bank staff hostage as they each come in the door. This
method insures total control of the situation, with nobody getting hurt. After
getting Joe's cousin Harvey to be the getaway driver, Joe and Terry hit their
first bank with great success, treating the bank manager, his family, and the
rest of the bank staff with only the utmost respect and kindness.
It's not long before Joe and Terry become wildly popular in the media, which
gives them the name "The Sleepover Bandits". But when they spilt up after a bank
job, Terry meets an unhappily married woman named Kate when she runs into
him--literally--with her car. At first Terry tries to dump the hyperactive Kate
and steal her car, but when the frantic woman refuses--instead she insists on
driving Terry to his meeting with Joe and Harvey--Terry reluctantly allows her to
take him to the hideout. But matters take a turn for the worse for Terry when
Joe takes a shine to Kate, and she soon becomes yet another wack-job member of
this incredibly bizarre team of bandits.
Directed by Barry Levinson, Bandits is an outright funny story featuring a great
cast of actors. Bruce Willis gives a credible performance as the cool and
collected Joe, while Billy Bob Thornton is hilarious as his worrywart partner.
Thornton's Terry is so neurotic about his health that he's become a walking
encyclopedia on medical problems. And Cate Blanchett gives another marvelous
performance as an anxious, indecisive housewife who wants more out of her
life--but she just doesn't know what. The comic chemistry between Willis,
Thornton and Blanchett is a joy to watch. In fact, Levinson directs this story
in such a breezy enjoyable manner that it makes the viewer want to see it over
and over again. The DVD is equipped with an alternate ending, deleted scenes,
along with two making of featurettes, and the option of viewing the film either
in widescreen or pan & scan. But the real reason to get this DVD is just to
watch the antics of this crazy crew of bank robbers.
--SF
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