BANDIT
Starring: Josh Duhamel, Mel Gibson, Elisha Cuthbert, and Nestor Carbonell
Director: Allan Ungar
NICK
Bandit is a film of a bygone era. The kind of movie you rented from Blockbuster on a whim to entertain yourself for about two hours. It isn’t particularly special or memorable, but Josh Duhamel is entertaining in the role, and the script has a nice mix of goofy and clever dialogue. I can’t say it does the true story of The Flying Bandit justice, but this isn’t a documentary. Bandit doesn’t try to be more than it is, but if you want the comfort of going back to a time when you popped a fresh VHS tape into your VCR, you could do worse.
QUENTIN
Despite its caper-ish vibe and a disarming Josh Duhamel, Bandit is mostly a boring tale about a guy trying to have a family. Yes, the guy happens to rob banks, but all the fun genre tropes are missing. There are no cool planning montages, tense moments with his mob boss partner, or cat-and-mouse games with authorities. I’m sure the actual story of Canada’s most notorious bank robber (he robbed a record 59 banks and jewelry stores) is probably interesting, but Bandit fails to capture that. Also, one lengthy sequence uses Yello’s “Oh Yeah” (the “Bow bow…Ohhhh yeah...Chickachickaaaa” song), which comes across as laughably dated.
