CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Davis P Bandits (2001) is a movie of many genres. It's got some comedic material, action, romance, and some drama too. It's about 2 infamous bank robbers and a woman who they meet along the way. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film is done very well overall. Good writing, very good performances all around, and good chemistry between the three leads. The romance comes into play as a sort of love triangle between Blanchett, Willis, and Thornton. It's interesting because the characters are developed well, they have a certain depth to them. If you think this movie will be all action because it's about bank robbers and centers on crime, then you've got it wrong. The action aspect of the movie doesn't make up a lot of time, it's mostly a character based movie, it focuses on these pretty damaged people and tells their story as robbers and what all they go through. The film is very entertaining and it definitely keeps your attention the entire way through. If you want a film that focuses on well developed characters, has a little romance, and crime mixed in as well... then you'll probably like this one. 8/10 for Bandits.

Uriah43 Although Bruce Willis (as "Joseph 'Joe' Blake") has the top billing in this movie, it is actually Billy Bob Thornton ("Terry Lee Collins") who carries this film with an outstanding and hilarious performance as a hypochondriac who seems to have contracted just about every disease known to mankind. Essentially, Joe decides to break out of prison at the spur of the moment and Terry mindlessly follows him out of the gates. Once outside they decide to rob banks which leads them to fame as "the Sleepover Bandits" due to their penchant of kidnapping bank presidents at night and sleeping at his house prior to robbing the bank the next morning. In one specific botched get-away Terry accidentally kidnaps a ing motorist named "Kate Wheeler" (Cate Blanchett) which further increases their fame. Rather than divulge the entire plot I'll just say that this film had some good moments and some bad moments. The beginning and the end were very good but it seemed to really slow down in the middle. Big time. And while both Bruce Willis and Troy Garity (as the get-away driver "Harvey 'Dog' Pollard") added decent performances, Cate Blanchett didn't seem to have the right chemistry for this movie. Be that as it may, the end result was a good comedy aided primarily by the excellent acting of Billy Bob Thornton. If the bar room scene doesn't make you laugh then nothing will.

Robert J. Maxwell I wish the media would simply refer to "hostages" instead of "hostage situations." How can you have hostages taken WITHOUT there being a "situation"? Don't we have enough redundancy in everyday life -- "thunderstorm activity" and "free gifts" -- without "hostage situations"? I tell you, it soured my whole outlook on the film even though I don't that the term itself was ever used.A good guess it that this looked like a fine comedy on paper to director Levinson, a former writer. And it does have a couple of funny lines and situations. Yet it somehow doesn't come together. The performers are all competent but the script requires them to do and say things that usually land with a slight thud.Three bandits, led by Willis and Thornton, rob banks the easy and non-violent way, just by staying overnight at the bank manager's house and accompanying him to the bank the next morning so he can open the safe and give them the money. A bored housewife, Cate Blanchett, is swept up into the crime spree and plays an active part in the robberies. Both Willis and Thornton sleep with her and find her irresistible.It's understandable. Blanchett, in addition to being a magnificent actress with a wide range (from "Elizabeth" to "The Gift") and able to shed her Aussie accent instantly, has a long enough nose to set off her piquant beauty. It's not a traditional ski-slope nose either. Yes, it's long and it seems to extend down half her face but it has an alluring lump or two. Nobody has a face so unconventionally stunning. Her figure is merely stunning in a conventional way, so far as it's possible to tell, which is not far enough. She's like a tall, more symmetrical Vera Farmiga.Her two compañeros couldn't be more different. Willis, with hair, plays his usual role of robust man of action, a little dumb. He explains to a TV interviewer how his friendship with Thornton is like that of Lewis and Clark. Why else would Lewis have tracked Clark through the African jungle until he finally found him? Thornton is the hypochondriacal and indecisive ive figure, intolerant to all kinds of foods, allergic to this and that, worried about brain tumors, and phobic for Benjamin Disraeli's curly hair and even Charles Laughton.That kind of nonsense -- confusing Lewis and Clark with Stanley and Livingston, and being phobic for Disraeli's hair -- really IS funny as hell and it's precisely what the movie needed more of.As it stands, there are longish longueurs during which we watch the bored and glamorous housewife seduce the two bandits, who later must come to blows over who owns her. After a delirious and frenzied climactic bank robbery, everybody has a serious and completely unconvincing falling out, although who owns Blanchett is still an issue waiting resolution. She certainly doesn't go back to her husband. During her status as hostage, he makes a plea on TV for her to come back home if she possibly can escape. He won't be there. He's taking a vacation in Spain. But the house needs her. The house WANTS her. It's very moving.The photography and location shooting, mostly on California's northern coast, is colorful and evocative. Nice job there.

classicsoncall You would expect the team up of Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thonton and Cate Blanchett to be pretty good, and "Bandits" has it's moments, but you sure have to disengage from some of the less plausible elements of the story to make it work. Like the character of Joe Blake's (Willis) cousin Harvey (Troy Garrity). Didn't he quit the bank robbery business at some point along the way as he tried to pick up his dream girl hitchhiker? But there he was in the thick of things at the finale. So did he quit just to fool the audience, with Joe and Terry (Thornton) in on the ruse? I didn't get that, and I'm not going back to try and figure it out.But I generally liked the chemistry between Willis and Billy Bob. I don't know if throwing Blanchett into the mix was all that valuable or necessary. The other two palookas could have managed their bank heist without her being around. The love triangle really didn't work for me, once again referring to those less plausible elements I referenced earlier.The twist ending following the opening set up was pretty clever though. Not really buying it, but it did manage to extend a bit of misdirection offered by 'Criminals At Large'. If I can get my hands on a better quality print of the flick than the one I watched, I just might be up for a second viewing. In the meantime, I'll come away reasonably satisfied with the first , but without a glowing recommendation.