THE ART OF THE STEAL
Anchor Bay
I am a sucker for heist movies and always have been. The art of the steal is all that I love about those films and more.
This film has got elements of a good con, a well-executed heist and a bit of revenge thrown in for good measure. The plot is fairly basic, the movie opens with a team pulling off the theft of a painting that has already been stolen. Two of the team are half brothers, Crunch Calhoun played by Kurt Russell and Nicky played by Matt Dillon. Nicky gets popped and rolls over to save himself giving them Crunch who then spends the next 5 years in a Polish prison. When Crunch gets out he’s a bit pissed and trying to make a living as a stunt cyclist. Meanwhile Nicky has continued his ways and is in trouble, Interpol watching him along with some bad guys after him. Crunch and Nicky get together and by necessity plan a job together and they get the band back together. A team of folks good at what they do. The plot twists around a number of times and kept me guessing right up to the end. When they finally show what really happened it’s a great reveal and a wonderful wrap up.
Kurt Russell was great as he usually is. He does the hero well, but here playing a washed up hero trying to get by he is amazing. Matt Dillon as the scheming brother who can’t be trusted was so good. He’s just get a perfect twitchy look and you know he’s not saying everything. I also enjoyed Terrance Stamp in a role as a thief working towards early release from prison by helping Interpol. The rest of the cast was perfect, especially new comer Jay Baruchel who plays a street kid who Crunch has taken under his wing.
Jonathan Sobol wrote and directed this and you can see his love for the genre in every frame. He also has a great eye and I think the film looks amazing, especially the scenes in stark white snow.
The DVD has a making of feature which while kind of a standard love fest by all on the film for the other people they were working with it has some great stuff from Kurt Russell and Jonathan Sobol talking about doing the film is great because you can tell he loves what he does.
Jon
