Nokas

The film retells the NOKAS robbery, the biggest ever heist in Norway, in which a group of 11 heavily armed robbers stole a total of 57 million kroner, of which 51 have never been recovered.

The story is almost too weird to have happened in the way depicted. The plan was for the robbers to break down a window into the ground floor of the bank at a time the safe would have already been opened. Failing that, there should be enough hostages inside to force someone to open it. If everything would have gone according to plan they would have been out with the money in under 10 minutes. This alone does not a good heist movie make.

They figured that, as the building had been built in the 1960's, it would not have bullet proof glass and the windows should shatter immediately. This is where they were wrong and it considerably slowed them down. It took a sledgehammer, a battering ram and 113 shots to finally break into the building - giving the employees enough time to get out.

The plan also included a scheme to slow down the local police force from responding. They were already low on numbers as it were, with several officers on Easter holiday. The robbers blocked the police garage with a truck they then set on fire, virtually locking in most of the police working that day. This would have been a brilliant move were it not for the fact that the material they used as fodder for the fire is what got them convicted as it contained DNA from most of the robbers.

The only readily available law enforcement officers were a duo that were already out on an unrelated call. They ended up facing off with the robbers stationed outside the bank. With next to no personnel available, there was nobody there to rope off the area and people strolled by between the bank, the armed robbers and the police - people walking dogs, joggers, women with strollers. Even after shorts were fired (many, many shots), there was still a lot of foot traffic.

Also, the city buses came by right on schedule. There is a scene when all drivers of the buses are alerted of the robbery and gunfire at Church Square. One driver calls in to say that this is his route's starting point and asked what he should do. Dispatch told him to just go there and ask the policemen on site. WTF?

The film ends after the robbers drive off with the loot. What happened after is detailed in insert cards.

This was really quite brilliant.

8/10

Inside Man

This bank robbery plays out a little different than is to be expected. A group of would be robbers, dressed in black coveralls, hoods up, face hidden by white cloth and sunglasses, walk into a bank in Manhattan and take everybody (twenty? thirty?) inside hostage. They have everyone strip to their underwear and put on the same outfits they themselves are wearing with black eye masks instead of sunglasses.

The hostages are kept in small groups in different rooms with random people being moved at times from one room to the next, the person joining a group may even be one of the robbers. Very clever, that.

The head of the outfit is one Dalton Russell, who pulls the strings and communicates with law enforcement outside. The police detective designated to save the day is Det. Keith Frazier, whose job is complicated by the arrival of Madeleine White. Ms. White's request are to be met. So says the mayor. She has been hired by the founder of the bank, Arthur Case, to make sure that whatever is in safe deposit box 392 (a box that mysteriously is not listed with the other boxes) is either retrieved or never sees the light of day - whatever the cost.

So both, Frazier and White meet with Russell to discuss terms. Frazier realizes eventually that the robbers are playing for time and not easily fooled by things like bugs hidden in pizza boxes. White learns that Russell has already taken the contents of Case's box - proof that Case made some questionable deals with Nazi Germany while living in Switzerland along with a ring and a stash of diamonds. The diamonds are what the robbers are interested in, not touching and of the money or other valuables inside the bank.

The reason they are playing for time is because they build a cell behind a row of shelves in the supply room. When the police get ready to storm the place, the robbers are one step ahead of them - having sent their own bug into their mobile HQ. The preemptively throw smoke bombs and mix themselves among the hostages, making it impossible for police to prove who was on what side.

What is more, as nothing has been taken and nobody has been injured, the case gets shelved. No harm, no foul, right? Frazier, of course, cannot let got and returns to the bank, where Russell bumps into him. Russell has spent the last few weeks hidden in the cell they have built and now walks out with the diamonds. Frazier is there to execute a court order to open box 392, which has been emptied except for the ring and a note telling him to "follow the ring", which he does - dropping in on the mayor having lunch with White, handing them the number of the Office of War Crime Issues. At home he realizes, that the man he pumped into him dropped a single diamond into his pocket.

Quite interesting and very well cast.

7/10

Dog Day Afternoon

This is brilliant!

Sonny and two cohorts try to rob a bank. Everything that can possibly go wrong does. First, one of the accomplices chickens out. Money has just been picked up the day before so the vaults are empty. To top it all off, the police swarm the place.

Whenever Sonny comes out, waving a white flag, to negotiate an escape for him and his friend Sal, he gets cheered by the crowd. And he loves it. He yells out paroles, throws money into the crowd and screams "Attica! Attica!" referring to a riot at Attica prison facility some time earlier.

He is more concerned about keeping his hostages safe (bathroom breaks and pizza) and leaving money in his will to both his wife. The second wife is actually a man named Leon and is sort of the reason Sonny got himself into this mess, he was going to steal the money to pay for Leon's sex change.

The film is based on true events (according to the actual culprit, only loosely so) and is one of Al Pacino's finest performances.

9/10

Gambit

Gambit is the remake of the 1966 film of the same name (starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine). Without having seen the original I dare say that the newer version is only very losely based on the older one.

Colin Firth is employed by art loving asshole Alan Rickman and - with the help of Texan cowgirl Cameron Diaz - tries to con him into buying a forgery of a painting Rickman is searching for. Firth is rather hapless (or is he?) and things go off the rails almost immediately.

In the end, the small employee gets his revenge - in a different way than  expected.

Firth is his usual charming and handsome self, Alan Rickman is Alan Rickman and Cameron Diaz is, yet again, dress up in another of the mediocre comedies she appears to be stuck in.

Nothing to write home about.

3/10

JCVD

I was never a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan. Actually, I was never much of an action film fan and my least favorite action film stars were always Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Seagal because the couple of films I've seen sucked, Van Damme I always thought to be a guy that was beefed up because he suffered from short man syndrome.

But this, ladies and gentlemen, is genius.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Jean-Claude Van Damme having a very bad day. He lost custody of his daughter, suffers from jet leg, all his bank and credit cards are maxed out, his career is stalling and the post office he walks into is being robbed. To everyone on the outside it looks like he is the robber barricading himself up with a group of hostages while the real bad guys use him as a deflection.

The film is drained of color and brilliantly hilarious with JCVD trying to save his own hide and keeping the hostages safe by building up a relationship with one of the robbers, who is a big fan (as is all of Belgium, apparently).

To add to all the weirdness, Van Damme holds a lengthy, tearful monologue about 1 hr into the film, for which he is lifted out of a scene.

Watch this!

8/10

Man on a Ledge

Do you know the feeling when you come home late in the evening and you are still so hyper (from whatever....harmless things) that you are not ready to go to bed. Happened to me two nights ago and I had to fill the void between hyper and eyes falling shut (experience has taught me this is a rather short period) with something to watch that didn't require too much thinking. So, I picked Man on a Ledge, because with a title like that....

It is about a man. He is on a ledge.

It is set in New York City, which is a plus in my book (pretty aerial views onto cabs and onlookers). The lead actor...Nick Cassidy/Sam Worthington...not so much. So he was a cop that ended up in prison for allegedly stealing a diamond, which he strongly denies. He escapes and the next thing we know he is on this ledge with a woman (Elizabeth Banks) left with the task to talk him back into the hotel room he was staying in. We also meet a few more characters/actors. Some of them we like - Jamie Bell (the brother), Kyra Sedgwick (a reporter), Edward Burns (a cop).

That was pretty much the end of my first sitting with Man on a Ledge. Bedtime.

Next sitting (last night) - there is of course much more to the story than we initially learned. Nick maintains that he did not steal the diamond off of the big bad wolf - in this case Ed Harris (David Englander) - and to prove his innocence/get him back he hogs all the media and police attention while his lil (hot) bro and his (equally hot) girlfriend break into Englander's vault to actually steal the diamond in question. After some nailbiting action (well, not really) and the discovery that most cops are dirty it turns out that the diamond is not there!

It was at this point that I once again called it quits for the night. So the burning questions (Did he or did he not steal the diamond originally? Where is the stupid diamond??? Is Edward Burns a good or bad guy?) will have to wait.

Third (and final) sitting: Happy end! Hurrah! Bad guys get taken down, Ed Burns is not one of them, former colleagues cheer Nick, a lot of shoulder patting, lil bro proposes and they all lived happily ever after. Way too neat, if you ask me.

2/10