Heist

[Hunter Rider]

When their attempt to rob a casino owned by the feared gangster Pope (Robert De Niro) goes awry and a shootout ensues, Vaughn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Cox (Dave Bautista) are forced to flee on foot and hijack city Bus 657 and take the passengers hostage. Now, in a high speed chase, Vaughn will not only have to outwit the police, led by Officer Bajos (Gina Carano) who are in hot pursuit, but he will have to contend with Pope’s maniacal right hand man, Dog (Morris Chestnut), in order to make it through the day alive. But we quickly learn that things are not what they seem, and Vaughn has more than one card up his sleeve. HEIST will be released by Lionsgate Premiere in theaters and on demand November 13.

Trailer:

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I like the cast and it looks like a fun mesh of action movie ideas.

 

[dude stannis]

It's actually getting some good reviews too. Even the worst one which gave a C+ said it's a fun viewing.

I'm really interested to see if Lionsgate Premiere are becoming the action movie Blumhouse.

 

[Hunter Rider]

This turned out really well, I hope it gets more interest from WOM.

JDM is fantastic in the lead as a desperate world weary father trying to be the hero his daughter needs. It's not an original character for sure, but he imbues Luke Vaughn with a natural charisma and authentic emotion that he's very easy to root for as things spiral out of hand.

The supporting cast is also good with Mark Paul Gosselar and Morris Chestnut both getting roles they can sink their teeth into, while Carano and Batista are limited but do fine in their respective roles, Carano in particular showing a nice empathetic turn rather than an action one. The real pleasant surprise though is De Niro, I expected him to sleep walk through this like Bruce Willis other former big names do in DTDVD parts, but he throws himself fully into it and in fairness is given some good material as Casino owner/gangster The Pope.

The film moves at a good pace with no wasted scenes, and is surprisingly propelled by the characters arcs and entertaining/emotional dialogue exchanges rather than set pieces. There is some decent action though, with the sequence where the SWAT team try to take the hijacked bus being the stand-out.

The story takes several twists that are nicely set up and satisfyingly paid-off, while no doubt the ending will divide opinion, I liked it. We are in 2016 now but this is my late winner for 2015's surprise gem!

8/10

 

[chamber-music]

Batista was pretty impressive in this film. Probably the best acting I've seen of him so far.

Seeing Mark Paul Gosselar performance made me want to see him in an action movie. He plays the wisecracking role really well.

 

[dude stannis]

In terms of the twist,

Spoiler

I figured JDM intended to have the getaway car drop him at a 657 route stop further down the road anyway, that's why specifically legged it to the bus route once they did lose the getaway car.