Plot: Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), his brother Clyde (Adam Driver) decide to rob the Charlotte NASCAR racetrack on race day. They spring explosives expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) from jail, and he invites his two idiot brothers into the gang. In a complex scheme, as in Ocean's Eleven, they steal the cash. (Soderbergh also directed Ocean's Eleven.) They return back home, and try to avoid attention as FBI agent Grayson (Hillary Swank) digs into the case.
[imdb] [photos]
Review: This is an crazy caper movie with strange characters leading to situation comedy humor -- not so many jokes or laugh-out-loud gags. The plot's silliness builds the humor early, and the scheme's cleverness keeps up the interest toward the end. x
All the characters are likeable, especially Daniel Craig's character Joe Bang and Riley Keough's Mellie Logan. At the end Hilary Swank shows up as an FBI agent, and I liked her take-charge persona.
Our heroes are not Robin Hoods. The dim-witted Bang Brothers joke needing altruistic motive because they are born-again. The altruism is just a fig-leaf for their underlying criminality. Unlike most action movies, no one is killed.
There are jokes about the dim-wittedness and lack of sophistication of country people, which is contrasted with the clever heist plot at the end. The silly country people win.
Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes,
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: Rebecca Blunt, which is pseudonym for Soderbergh's wife Jules Asner or possibly Soderbergh himself or maybe both.
The Music: I liked the main score by David Holmes a lot. I even got the download. It is a jazzy mix of drums, and guitar like a 70's Bond film. The rest of music is assorted rock and country-rock that were new to me. David Holmes also scored the Ocean's Eleven movies.
The Visuals: I kept wondering how they hid Adam Driver's arm. There were some cool shots of the race cars and of the tunnels under the stadium.
Rating: 3.0 stars: Fun to watch
More: Soderbergh had said he was going to retire from film making and paint, however he made this movie instead.
.
.
.
