| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | Cinema |
Male Bonding
Amusing bank-heist movie with the morbidity of White sexuality as an underlying theme and recurring leitmotif that stands comparison with Charley Varrick.
Male bonding is seen here as only possible through an intense focus on the feminine and the use of women for sexual purposes. Much of the dialogue scrutinizes the character’s attitudes to sex and their implicitly-homosexual inability to move beyond heterosex as an end in itself towards it being a fulfilling means to an end. Much talk and little action suggesting why these men prefer each other’s company as opposed to that of wives, families and children.
For all that, the characters are likable since much of the movie is played for laughs and the essential childishness and irresponsibility of crime and criminals becomes kind of endearing. There is also a theme of the old annoyed at the young just for being young and for being cocky about it; serving to create dramatic friction between gang members. This all helps mitigate the slow pace and not-always-logical plotting.
The acting is first-rate, especially Jeff BRIDGES and George KENNEDY - the two most sex-obsessed characters - who are also given the funniest lines. Sadly, not nearly enough screen time is devoted to sexy Catherine BACH as a casual pickup nor to Claudia LENNEAR.
