The acting and overall story is pretty good. The cast has a lot of great actors playing minor roles. The overall premise is very strange though.
It's right there in the title. The whole movie there is always someone under surveillance. At first you think it's just one set of guys listening in on our protagonist. But soon there are overlapping investigations from IRS, FBI, private detectives and who knows who else. The premise is strange enough, that the B plot is going to be various surveillance guys. But the practice is weirder. They frequently just break the 4th wall and show you where the microphone is.
And then about halfway through it just becomes a heist film. And we forget about microphones entirely.
A bunch of stuff happens, the cops show up and then the credits roll.
This is almost a good movie, but my no means great?
I think anyone who gives this movie that kind of credit must have some core memory of watching this with their pa or something. It's really not.
The plot has a few major points that dont make sense.
The part where the girlfriend's sugar daddy shows up and says he owns her and everyone basically agrees and moves on.
I don't know if the director was trying to say something too subtle here or if it is just sloppy storytelling.
Why is at least one person not angry about this situation? Most men I know would want to beat the daylights out of such a patronizing jerk taking away their girl. Most women would be angry if their man just stood there and took it.
Then the way the cops go from being notified by HAM radio of a robbery to mobilizing every available unit, and cordoning off the building. I fail to see any explanation for why they did it that way. Or what motivated such a massive police response based on a "robbery" I guess they had already filmed the car crashes and needed to justify how that all looked afterwards? With the deserted streets
Also the head cop is kind of creepy. Did they have MDMA in 1971? I always felt like he was going to lick the cop he was talking to. Maybe the actor was extra drunk. Or good friends with Walken.
The real torpedo is the score. I was really surprised that it was by Quincy Jones? It doesn't sound like anything else I'm familiar with of his. It's jarring and often seems to arrive randomly when there is no call for it.
That all said, this is an enjoyable movie. I love heist films, weird soundtracks and Connery. But in terms of telling a story it came off like it was improvised then written in the cutting room.
It's right there in the title. The whole movie there is always someone under surveillance. At first you think it's just one set of guys listening in on our protagonist. But soon there are overlapping investigations from IRS, FBI, private detectives and who knows who else. The premise is strange enough, that the B plot is going to be various surveillance guys. But the practice is weirder. They frequently just break the 4th wall and show you where the microphone is.
And then about halfway through it just becomes a heist film. And we forget about microphones entirely.
A bunch of stuff happens, the cops show up and then the credits roll.
This is almost a good movie, but my no means great?
I think anyone who gives this movie that kind of credit must have some core memory of watching this with their pa or something. It's really not.
The plot has a few major points that dont make sense.
The part where the girlfriend's sugar daddy shows up and says he owns her and everyone basically agrees and moves on.
I don't know if the director was trying to say something too subtle here or if it is just sloppy storytelling.
Why is at least one person not angry about this situation? Most men I know would want to beat the daylights out of such a patronizing jerk taking away their girl. Most women would be angry if their man just stood there and took it.
Then the way the cops go from being notified by HAM radio of a robbery to mobilizing every available unit, and cordoning off the building. I fail to see any explanation for why they did it that way. Or what motivated such a massive police response based on a "robbery" I guess they had already filmed the car crashes and needed to justify how that all looked afterwards? With the deserted streets
Also the head cop is kind of creepy. Did they have MDMA in 1971? I always felt like he was going to lick the cop he was talking to. Maybe the actor was extra drunk. Or good friends with Walken.
The real torpedo is the score. I was really surprised that it was by Quincy Jones? It doesn't sound like anything else I'm familiar with of his. It's jarring and often seems to arrive randomly when there is no call for it.
That all said, this is an enjoyable movie. I love heist films, weird soundtracks and Connery. But in terms of telling a story it came off like it was improvised then written in the cutting room.
