Rakesh's movie talk
Bandits (2001)













Home | Movie Reviews | Movie talk | Film Personalities | Misc Articles | Contact Me | Tamil Time





 Directed by Barry Levinson
Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Kate Blanchett
















Bandits will include itself in many of the films which came out in the nineties, which knew how to start and how to end, but had a lot of trouble in the middle. (I can think of The Thomas Crown Affair for one)

There are traces of Butch Cassidy, The Sting, and many other films about conmen and thieves. This film tried to be more. While Bruce Willis was the action type, we have Billy Bob Thornton, whose hypochondriac role fits perfectly on Woody Allen. But Thornton pulls it off well and everything is well on it path, till the girl comes along.

Not only inclusion of Cate Blanchett as the bored housewife seeking adventure turmoil the two bandits relationship, it also succeeded it making the movie too long. There was a lot that could have happen, but did not happen simply because the scriptwriters fell in love with Blanchett's character. Nothing wrong with Blanchett of course. She is fine, enjoyable but spends too much time not helping the Bandits the stuff they do the best...rob banks.

Nevertheless, the film was still enjoyable. There are genuine moments of humour, coupled with great performance from the trio. Good film, only the damn middle part. Not something I would remember in my old age.