Bandits (2001) - Barry Levinson's great, funny heist movie

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Three sly-looking stars in sunglasses are aligned for this poster for Barry Levinson's Bandits

  

A couple of jail break bank-robbers find themselves caught in a ménage-a-trois with a feisty hostage, who becomes their partner-in-crime.

 

Bandits is written by Harley Peyton (Heaven's Prisoners (1996)) and directed by great Marylander filmmaker Barry Levinson (Diner (1982)).
The shenanigans in this excellent crime caper comedy, which is a kind of post-modern genre hybrid of road movie, heist movie, romance, action and drama all in one, work surprisingly well. Bandits is an underrated and overlooked American gem.
The performances and over-the-top hilarious and wild script by Peyton make the ride incredibly entertaining and fun: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine (2013)) is the irresistible woman in the middle of the unlikely friendship between Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) and Billy Bob Thornton's (Bad Santa 2 (2016)) characters, and she delivers a strong performance, - and looks super-sharp while giving it.

Willis is at his most charming, likeable and funny. And Thornton is hilarious as the hypochondriac bandit. They don a number of very funny disguises through the film, and the sheer comedic quality of them in some of these outfits is just so hard to resist chuckling or laughing out loud at.

The music of Bandits is a rich assembly of great hits from artists like Bob Dylan, In Bloom, Bonnie Tyler, Bill Withers, U2 and many others.
The movie may seem a bit long, but then its surprising end makes up for it. The film is full of memorable, funny and exciting scenes, and is a joyous ride throughout, - not to miss.

Related posts:

 

Barry Levinson: 2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Bugsy (1991) - Levinson and Beatty serve a delicious gangster treat

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 75 mil. $
Box office: 67.6 mil. $
= Huge flop

[Bandits was released 12 October (North America) and runs 123 minutes. Levinson was paid 10 mil. $ for his directing of the film. Shooting took place from October 2000 - February 2001 in Oregon and California. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Training Day, to a 13 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 41.5 mil. $ (61.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 3.8 mil. $ (5.6 %) and France with 2.8 mil. $ (4.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Golden Globes and an AFI award and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Levinson returned with A Uniform Used to Mean Something... (2004, short) and theatrically with Envy (2004). Willis returned in Hart's War (2002); Thornton in Monster's Ball (2001); and Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Bandits is fresh at 64 % with a 6.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bandits?