American Heist

There seems to be something inherently lacking about American Heist. Be it may the boring pace or the lackluster script, the movie is considerably basic and uninteresting. Story follows James (Hayden Christensen) who is forced to do a heist by his brother Frankie (Adrien Brody). That's practically all there is to it, yet the movie is needlessly bloated by pointless cliché of crime drama. It takes literally an hour before any momentum can be achieved. At that span of time American Heist is a repetitive foray of tired love subplot and awkward script which consists of refined use of words such as "Fuck" and "Bro" in every other sentences. It feels so dreary and dry as the cast could perform so much more. Adrien Brody is certified good, bless him for trying so hard with so little, although in the end the performance is unintentionally uncomfortable. Hayden Christensen can definitely deliver better performance, in fact he did in Takers, which is exactly the same genre. Heck, even Jordana Brewster in Fast and Furious franchise has had better material to work with. Her role in this film is so redundant, almost a glorified wallflower even. This is quite surprising since the movie has some good production. When it gets going the cinematography is pretty good. Using action oriented shots and presentation with the city in rain, the tension is elevated on the last act. However, it's barely enough to get audience's attention, especially after the comparatively weak start. American Heist may boast some famous name and a glint of decent visual, but the tedious and generic material is a waste of time and money.

It is not perfect but I absolutely loved Hayden Christensen performance, Jordana Brewster is great. and the action is top notch. Frankie - Adrien Brody is what I didn't like in this movie, I am not sure if it is an impossible part to play or simple bad performance, Adrien Brody normally is a great actor but maybe he is no right for this part, all the rest of the cast are OK but not great, I have seeing heat and I don't remember anything from it exempt for the street shooting, I am sure I will remember more of this one, I personally don't like movies that things are getting worse by the second for the main character , specially if he is a decent human being, but if you like those movies I believe you will like is, I really think it is worth watching for Hayden Christensen, if the rest of it was that good he would have at list nominated for an Oscar.

Action ? Nope. I calculated that the sum of all main characters spent a grand total of 17 calories throughout the story. Mostly because one of them trots about 5 yards somewhere in the first half. Drama ? More likely. You'll mostly watch brothers talking gravely and crying in each other's arms. There's also 1 woman, and she's in a love angle. That way, 2 requirements of US formatted products are met, killing two stones with one bird. Heist ? Barely. It's 1 hour and a half long, and the heist itself starts after 1 hour in. I'm not saying that the heist preparations take 1 hour. Preparations ? What preparations ? Let's just pop in the bank with guns, take everyone hostage and hope nobody notices from outside. From now on, you'll mostly watch brothers talking gravely and crying in each other's arms, but with their faces covered. American ? Yes, the title isn't a complete lie. Not sure what the exact purpose of this adjective is... maybe to warn us that this heist won't occur in Papua New Guinea and that there won't be Austin Minis. Actually, I was expecting a gang of nuke-toting, gum-bubbling, Gump-quoting, segway-racing corporate-tattooed obese survivalists. Of which I saw none, so it's only technically American; just.

I am an action movie type of guy and I was expecting this movie to be epic. But it wasn't. The movie was lacking in detail and character development. Also the plot, its just stupid and unrealistic. If I were to watch this again, I would rather go out and buy Frozen and re-watch it. I feel that the main character wasn't really chosen well. I was expecting him to look like a hardened criminal or something but he just looked so out of character. Now the love life of the main character, don't make me laugh. It was rushed in awkwardly. Guess what? Withn 45 minutes or so into the movie, boom. They make out. Also the love life doesn't really play the love life. Near the ending, the love life just plays a girl who is a police operator and just reports the heist and stuff to other police officers. I don't feel the love, the emotional tug or something like that. Please, just don't watch this.

"It was always me and you against the world." Frankie (Brody) has just gotten out of jail. While in there his former crime partner, and brother, James (Christensen) has gotten his life straightened out. With no money or home Frankie convinces James to help him pull off one last heist in order to help them both. This is not a bad movie at all and I did enjoy it. I was entertained and was not bored at all. On the other hand the movie is pretty generic and if it wasn't for the acting by Brody it may have been much worse than it was. I do like heist movies a lot but in order to set itself apart the movies must have some other element to them. This one used overused elements and did nothing to make them different. Again though, this isn't a bad movie and it worth seeing. Overall, a decent heist movie that is a good watch, but a little too generic to be all that special. I give this a B-.

Most of the reviews on this film are from people that want super fast cars and explosions with super intelligent heist tactics. This is not that film. But it is not a bad film. Not a bad movie at all. I really liked it. If you want a super high budget blockbuster, this is not your movie. If you want to feel the characters and understand their pain, and you can watch slow movies a gain something from them, I recommend this movie. It is definitely a B film, but both of the characters are good actors. You really feel what they are experiencing and what they have been through. I do not regret watching this film at all. But I can enjoy a good film, and I can understand the slower films.

There seems to be something inherently lacking about American Heist. Be it may the boring pace or the lackluster script, the movie is considerably basic and uninteresting. Story follows James (Hayden Christensen) who is forced to do a heist by his brother Frankie (Adrien Brody). That's practically all there is to it, yet the movie is needlessly bloated by pointless cliché of crime drama. It takes literally an hour before any momentum can be achieved. At that span of time American Heist is a repetitive foray of tired love subplot and awkward script which consists of refined use of words such as "Fuck" and "Bro" in every other sentences. It feels so dreary and dry as the cast could perform so much more. Adrien Brody is certified good, bless him for trying so hard with so little, although in the end the performance is unintentionally uncomfortable. Hayden Christensen can definitely deliver better performance, in fact he did in Takers, which is exactly the same genre. Heck, even Jordana Brewster in Fast and Furious franchise has had better material to work with. Her role in this film is so redundant, almost a glorified wallflower even. This is quite surprising since the movie has some good production. When it gets going the cinematography is pretty good. Using action oriented shots and presentation with the city in rain, the tension is elevated on the last act. However, it's barely enough to get audience's attention, especially after the comparatively weak start. American Heist may boast some famous name and a glint of decent visual, but the tedious and generic material is a waste of time and money.

But that's mostly due to the fact that the main focus was on two brothers. Adrien Brody plays the older brother who did hard time for the crime that also involved his little bro played by Hayden Christensen who did a shorter sentence and got out determined to do as good of a job as any ex- con to keep his nose clean, but when his brother gets out, he forces little bro back into the life as a favor to the man that stop the constant booty tapping that he was getting. This focus could have been better. Adrien Brody gave a decent performance as a man who got broken in his decade in prison, but this performance goes over weakly in this mediocre film that did not develop his character enough for Brody's attempts at heart breaking scene stealing. Bouncing his acting chops off of Christensen was not a good call either. He tries, but Christensen seem too focus on his though guy persona to really get any acting done. I feel most sorry for Johanna Brewster who is now officially typed cast as the girlfriend to the criminal car nut, which she perfected in the Fast and Furious franchise. For the movie to be called American Heist is misleading, though the implementation of the heist was somewhat suspenseful, we did not get to see much heist planning. It's no Heat or Set it off. Whatever this movie was trying to do it kind of fumbled the ball in both cases.

After serving ten years in prison in New Orleans, the smalltime criminal Frankie Kelly (Adrien Brody) comes to the house of his younger brother, James Kelly (Hayden Christensen), who is a mechanic in a local workshop. James is dating the gorgeous Emily (Jordana Brewster), who works as operator in the NOLA Police Ddepartment, and lives a honest life. Frankie introduces James to his friends Sugar (Akon) and Ray (Tory Kittles) that helped him in the prison and soon James learns that they are planning a bank heist with the gangster Spoonie (Luis Da Silva Jr.). He tries to recuse to participate but Ray forces him threatening his older brother. What will James do? "American Heist" is a boring and melodramatic heist film. The relationship between Frankie and James is never dramatic but seems to be a soap opera. The awful end of the film without the conclusion of the story is not an intelligent open end, like in many European movies, but simply lack of ending. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "O Último Golpe" ("The Last Coup")

This movie is just a waste of time, money and the efforts of anyone who took part in it. Don't be fooled by the title: this movie is not about a heist. It's about two brothers whining about how their lives turned out. That's actually all that happens for the first hour of the movie. There's no action, no character or plot development. It seems like the script was written for a 40-minute action series episode (that wouldn't have been worth seeing anyway). But then the director decided to make it into a full-length movie by adding long pauses into every dialogue, and panoramic views of the city after every scene. The most exciting information that we learn throughout the movie is the detailed description of how Browy's character was harassed in prison. There is nothing that any of the characters say or do that can make you care for them. By the time the actual heist begins you just want to kill all the characters off in the most cruel way possible. And it seems like the director knows it and tries to satisfy your desire. Because what we see here is of the most poorly planned and pointless heists in the history of cinema. The attackers take off their masks for no reason, they plan no escape route, they stand in front of the glass doors so that everyone in the street can see the heist. The stupidity of everything that happens on the screen is overwhelming. This movie doesn't deserve a single minute of your time. Avoid it at all costs!