Movie 87: Thick As Thieves

Master thief Ripley (Morgan Freeman) recruits younger thief Gabriel (Antonio Banderas) to help him steal some Faberge, I think, eggs from Romanov’s jewellers. A theft that should be damned near impossible. All the while, they are watched and hounded by Lt Weber (Robert Forster) who’s been trying to nab Ripley for years.

If you haven’t seen this you wouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that you have. It’s not all that original. In fact, it’s not really at all original. But that can be fine. Unfortunately it’s not all that great either.

There’s good points. Morgan Freeman is always good, no matter what he’s in. And I would have liked to have seen more interplay between him and Forster, the old cop and old thief that have been dancing partners for years. There’s not quite enough of that. The chemistry between Freeman and Banderas is pretty good too. And the way they get around the security is quite clever.

Unfortunately the heist part is pretty rushed. Not terribly, but it could have been fleshed out a bit more. It seems a little TOO easy. That’s not the films main let down.

The love story is atrocious. Antonio Banderas isn’t some kind of amazing latin lothario that can charm the pants off of any woman. Or if he is, he’s not anymore. And he certainly isn’t convincing as one in this film. All the love story between his character and Radha Mitchell’s does is slow the movie down to a grinding halt, and then drag the ending out by a couple of unnecessary minutes. They have zero chemistry. Well a little, but it’s not acted well enough to be believable and you’ll feel like the DVD has skipped a scene.

There’s some twists and turns, but it’s a familiar plot and no one should really come away shocked and awed. It actually made me wish there were earlier movies of Ripley as it was a good character for Freeman. He plays good bad guys along with, well God and Presidents. And this felt like it was a 4th or 5th in a series rather than a first film.

And probably last. Don’t rush to see it.

Next up: I Live In Fear. What the frak is that Dave?!