The new movie “Bandits” is going to get compared to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” by approximately five billion critics all over the country. And there are similarities: Two crooks fall in love with the same woman, all with their interesting quirks and personality traits.
And that older movie is also better than “Bandits,” which is why it will be the reference point for every movie fan.
But “Bandits” does capture a certain modern energy, if only thanks to the triple team of Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett. The trio’s overall performance makes this flick worth watching in the first place.
Willis and Thornton play Joe and Terry, respectively. The pair break out of prison and then make plans to use a series of bank heists to finance their dream of owning a resort in Acapulco.
But being the sly guys they are, they develop a new scheme to rob those banks. Joe and Terry decide if they go to the home of the bank manager of their target the night before, stay with the manager and take him to the bank first thing in the morning, the process will be much easier, preventing them from having to resort to any violence.
This plan gets them dubbed “The Sleepover Bandits,” and their fame quickly grows as television and newspapers follow their every move. People start to idolize them so much that one bank manager opens the door and excitedly invites them in, anxious to get started on the heist.
The only problem in the way is they both fall in love with Kate (Blanchett), who pushes her way into the whole thing and eventually the hearts of the pair.
While the bank robberies are fun to watch, the highlight of the movie is the chemistry between the trio as they try to deal with the complicated situation. Kate doesn’t want to choose between the two men, and eventually tells them she can’t, simply because “together, you’re the perfect man.”
The friendship between the charming Joe and hypochondriac Terry is touching, and their combined love of Kate leads them to work together in an effort to keep her around. They both want her for themselves, but in the end they decide it’s better to share than to lose her forever.
Willis employs his normal swagger here as the gung-ho man of action in this movie, but the overall standout is Thornton. He plays a guy worried and fidgety so well you know that it’s not that far off from his normal routine.
One scene in which both Joe and Terry, in a bar, attempt to talk Kate into running off with them, is probably among the funniest of the film and well done at that. Terry, being more than happy to go along with the suggestion after Joe tells him about a relative’s symptoms from a brain tumor, finds himself unable to move his body. Terry slumps in Kate’s arms on the dance floor and begins rolling himself around on the floor. That is, until Kate informs him that the relative, and the symptoms, are all a joke Joe played on Terry, and he stands up like nothing happened at all.
This movie qualifies as quality entertainment. It’s fun to watch, pure and simple. Watching the two attempt to woo Kate while robbing banks is a great little escapist piece of cinema. It will not win awards, nor will it change the world. But it will entertain for a couple hours and not leave an audience feeling cheated.
