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| Movie Forums :: Reviews :: The Heist: A Game of Chess |
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Posted on 11/11/01
The Heist: A Game of Chess
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To be good at chess one must always anticipate his opponent's moves. The further you plan in advance the better off you'll be. This fact is not just true in chess, it is true in nearly any situation of conflict, including, as this movie demonstrates, in the world of crime.
It is really unnecessary to explain what this movie is about; the thief genre is tried and true and has been around for a long time. There were classics like "The Great Train Robbery" and more recently movies such as "The Score" and "Heat." In fact "The Heist" is even more similar to "The Score" and "Heat" in that those are also about a master thief going in for one last big score. However, despite it's similarities, this movie does have aspects that set it apart from the rest.
The major one is that this movie is far more complicated than any of those. I can honestly say that I have never seen a heist movie in which the thieves have as complicated a plan as in this one. They also do not show the audience what the plan is in advance so in addition to duping the people in the film the thieves also dupe you. By the end of the movie you can only be sure of one thing, and that is that you can be sure of nothing other than that the protagonist will come out on top somehow.
Another aspect that sets it apart is the gritty realism of it all. There is no gloss on the action scenes; in fact they never even play "danger music." This film has one of the most realistic action scenes I have ever seen. Its not fancy like things you would see in "The Matrix" or "Desperado;" its much more real, bloody, and honest. They don't use slow motion or any dramatic deaths; it's an honest and accurate portrayal of a gunfight. The action in this aspect is very similar to the action in "Three Kings" if you take out the slow motion and different camera angles in that movie. Unlike most movies the majority of shots actually hit someone.
Despite what I've said this movie does have one definite downside, and that is the dialog. The dialog was very tiring and often used gratuitous vulgarity. I'm not one to shy away from vulgarity, but you can tell when its natural and when its gratuitous. There was one span about a quarter of the way into the movie that was very boring because it consisted of a few back-to-back scenes of the same tiring dialog. For awhile I was worried that it would go the way of "Hurly Burly" and be a horrible movie of nothing but badly written dialog. Luckily the movie got out of the slow spot and things started to really pick up.
Another downside, though much smaller than the horrible dialog, was the development of the relationship between Gene Hackman's character and his wife. It was never really shown why they liked each other or that they even liked each other at all. The only thing we really knew was that they were married. I suppose her entire character was not developed very much at all. This isn't a big issue that should stop you from watching the movie, but it is something that nagged at me.
If you watch "The Heist" you'll come out with the knowledge of how to plan the perfect getaway and you should be pleased because it is a pretty good movie. It does have some graphic violence though, so you may want to think twice about taking your kids to see it, and the gratuitous vulgarity could also be an issue in that aspect. Overall I have to recommend this movie, it's one of the best I've seen lately and is certainly the best currently out that I've seen.
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