Of Sunsets and Diamonds...
[Pic Courtesy IMDB]
Its been awhile since my wife and I liked an English movie equally well. While I go for the mindless, special-effects-laden actioners, she likes the cute, sweet romances. After the Sunset turned out to be a movie both of us liked but for very different reasons. While she went ga-ga over Pierce Brosnan, I drooled over Salma Hayek in peace! The two here play master thiefs who are retired on a Caribbean island until the presence of the famed Napoleon diamond on a cruise ship thats docked nearby tempts Brosnan. Woody Harrelson is the FBI agent who has a score to settle with Brosnan.
The movie offers little apart from the good-looking leads and gorgeous scenery though. It is bookended by two heists that are in turns both preposterous and simplistic. The movie is not as complicated as heist movies typically are and the relatively few twists can be seen a mile away. There are a few cheap laughs to be had in the scenes with Brosnan and Harrelson. But it is a pretty short movie and time passes easily enough.
PS: If heist movies interest you, check out Heist and The Spanish Prisoner.
Balaji's Thots... [Permalink]
Your Thots (21)
thinkers since May 11, 2005
21 Comments:
BB....Heist and Spanish Prisoner...what do they have in common? David Mamet! This guy is a master of the heist genre! Do check out his "House of Games"!
'Rififi' (Thanks to Ebert's Great movies list and netflix) and 'the Usual suspects' are all all-time favorite heist movies.
'Rififi' (Thanks to Ebert's Great movies list and netflix) and 'the Usual suspects' are my* all-time favorite heist movies.
‘rififi’ is the second greatest heist film of all time…no doubt abt it… Dassin at his best!!
but the first… that honor goes to the kubrick’s ‘the killing’ .. an absolute fucking masterpiece!!
there are also some other greats I am probably forgetting…
what are your favs bj? btw, great topic
victor
Heist was awesome...I thought Danny De Vito stole the scenes he appeared in...there was a huge debate about what his line, "Everyone wants MONEY, thats why its called MONEY" really meant...
do you remember, guys?
i have not seen either 'the killing', 'rififi' or 'house of games' (ever since this blog started, my Netflix queue has been growing like crazy!). I guess my favorite would have to be 'Usual Suspects'. But most disappointing was definitely 'The Score' with 2 of my favorite actors De Niro and Edward Norton.
Vic - Yup! I totally agree with you.The Killing is a superb film
The Italian Job and Ocean's 11 (NOT 12!) were fun heist movies.
A few other Heist films I immensely like:
Reservoir Dogs (QT)
Topkapi (Dassin again!)
Snatch (Guy Ritchie)
The Sting (George Roy Hill)
Dog Day afternoon (Sidney Lumet)
Out of Sight (Steven Soderberg)
Guru (Kamal - Couldn't resist adding this Thalaivar guilty pleasure ;-)
ram, yes i think 2 or 3 of Ebert's Answer Man columns were devoted to his admiration of that line! But I too belong to the huge group of people who didnt 'get' the line. And Ebert's explanation was far from convincing...
Looking at the list so far, it looks like I have seen too few heist movies! One that I did see and enjoy was 'lock, stock and two smoking barrels'
My friend suggested this movie bcoz of the obvious Salma Hayek factor. The movie exceeded our expectations. After seeing the movie I have added Bahamas to the list of places to see at some point in my life.
Another one that I enjoyed... 'To Catch a Thief'. That movie is actually referred to in 'After the Sunset' too.
some nice choices guys!!
though some I disagree with…
‘usual suspects’ - I didn’t like this one myself.. I agree with ebert’s review
‘topkapi’ - this one was much too comedic for me, dassin should have stayed with his serious neo noir style
‘Italian Job’ - did not like the original or the remake - but at least caine’s version had the awesome ‘mini’ scenes in the end, but marky mark’s version was just painfully unbearable to watch
‘Out of Sight’ - Soderbergh had not really come into his own yet
some ones I love though…
‘Reservoir Dogs’ - classic
‘The Sting’ - good one vij, I almost forgot abt this one
Ritchie’s ‘snatch’ and ‘lock, stock..’ of course
‘O11’ - one of the rare instances where the remake is as good as the original, I loved both Milestone and Soderbergh versions… I have not seen ‘O12’ yet though
Hitch’s 'To Catch a Thief' - bj, I never knew you were a hitch fan (I am also), what are some of your favs??
Swamy
check out huston’s ‘asphalt jungle’, if you have not already, it is not nearly as good a film as ‘the killing’ but it is a good film nonetheless… it has another awesome performance by hayden
victor
Hey , How abt "The Thomas Crowne Affair" ? -- another Pierce Brosnan starrer
Vic, Huge Hitch fan though 'to catch a thief' isn't one of my favs. In fact had even forgotten it was a Hitchcock movie till u brought it up. My fav Hitch movie is 'Notorious' with 'Psycho' a close second... But list of his movies I like is really long :)
and thanx ruchi. surprising how we all missed that one. though personally rene russo lacks salma's appeal, the movie was much better than 'after the sunset'
hey bj,
I too am a big hitch fan, in fact I would rank him as the second greatest director of all time
though imo I think ‘notorious’ is one of his overrated films… I dunno, maybe cause I was never a grant fan, though I did think bergman was just great in it
anyways, I agree with you abt ‘psycho’.. a real classic
my personal top 5 would be…
1) ‘Rope’ - one of the all time greats.. brilliant!
2) ‘Spellbound’ - another masterpiece, a close second
3) ‘Psycho’ - of course
4) ‘Vertigo’
5) ‘Dial M for Murder’
of course there are many more, but like you said ‘list of his movies I like is really long’
victor
How can any discussion of Hitch not mention these classics!
1)Rear Window (Grace Kelly...hot!)
2)Birds (If you thought this is yet another monster flick think again! Probably the Hitch movie with the subtlest of subtexts)
3) Rebecca (B/W classic from Hitch)
4) The Man who Knew too much (Who can forget "the clash of the cymbals"!)
5) Lady Vanishes
I would personally put ‘rear window’ and ‘birds’ in the overrated hitch category.. though I agree about kelly in ‘rw’, she was super hot!!
I agree w/ you abt ‘lady vanishes’ though, I really liked that one myself, it would perhaps be in my list if I had made a top 10
and abt ‘man who knew too much’, are you talking abt the ’56 or ’34 version??
I personally disliked the ’56 version, but I have yet to see the ’34 version (though from what I hear the ’34 version is the better film)
victor
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