How To Rob A Bank (2007/Genius/IFC DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Feature: C
I am
never happy to see a good cast with chemistry potential get wasted, but after a
promising start, slowly and painfully watched Nick Stahl, Erika Christensen and
Gavin Rossdale (a great singer who can act) in Andrews Jenkins’ would-be heist
film How To Rob A Bank (2007) where
a robber (Stahl) and potential kidnapee (Christensen) are locked in a bank
vault for most of the film, saving the producers some money. That leaves the usual police semi-effective
at best and Rossdale the villain once again.
Soon, the
dialogue turns out to be remarkably stupid as Jenkins runs out of ideas very
early faster than those in the vault should be losing oxygen (which is never
full explained) and this becomes a poor Dog
Day Afternoon for cyber-slackers as Stahl’s character is obsessed with how
bank fees have added up to ruin the world and quickly ruin this film. There is even this pretension chapterizing of
the film as if it were a guide to doing what the title suggests. Should you follow the instructions, you too
will feel like you are losing oxygen and if not get arrested for robbery and
other federal crimes, will lose 81 minutes of your life and be disappointed.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a little soft throughout when it should not be, even
when we exclude the video and would-be video footage. It should look better and maybe a film or
Blu-ray copy will show Joseph Meade’s work off better. We’ll see.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is surprising weak, despite being a new
recording, with some dialogue not as good from scene to scene, while the
soundfield is not as good as it could have been considering the type of film
being made. Oddest of all without ruining
anything is the odd use of a Duran Duran song at the end of the film that comes
out of nowhere and makes no sense whatsoever as a way to end what we have just
witnessed. If anything, it is more
entertaining than the film, but watch the whole film before hearing it to get
he full nonsense effect. The only extras
are two brief featurettes on the making of the film, which give it more promise
than it delivers.
- Nicholas Sheffo
