Heist

A Rare Treasure

  • Title: National Treasure
  • IMDb: link

National Treasure

National Treasure is a treasure hunting movie of the finest caliber.  With great locations, strange clues that must be deciphered intertwined into U.S. history, a race against time to find the treasure, a great cast, and peppered with action sequences but with its soul relying on the characters’ intellect rather than only their brawn, it’s all you can ask for, and a little more.  Disney has had mixed success in its live action movies, but this can be put alongside the best of the bunch.

The movie begins with John Adams Gates (Christopher Plummer) telling his grandson the story of a great treasure of King Solomon passed down through the generations and protected by the Knights Templar and Freemasons who eventually smuggle the treasure to the New World and hide it, leaving a series of clues by which it might later be uncovered.  Through mischance the Gates family has the only known clue to the treasure which he now passes on to his grandson.

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Hidden Gem – Confidence

  • Title: Confidence
  • IMDb: link

“Tommy Suits always said ‘a confidence game is like putting on a play where everyone knows their part: the inside man, the roper, the shills, everyone that is, except for the mark.'”

Every once in awhile you run across a film in the DVD aisle and say to yourself, “What is that?”  That’s how I came across Confidence.  Released in theaters in 2003 the film takes a look at a group of con artists whose latest con has gone south and their last ditch attempt to rectify the situation, get out from behind the thumb of a crime boss, and perform the biggest con of their lives. 

Jake Vig (Edward Burns) and his team of con men have just pulled off another successful con.  Everything should be gravy, but then the other shoe drops.  It turns out the money they’ve taken belongs to an unforgiving crime boss (Dustin Hoffman), and then, when one of the team ends up dead (Louis Lombardi), they realize they have stepped into a whole new league.

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Ocean’s Eleven

  • Title: Ocean’s Eleven
  • IMDB: link

oceans-eleven-poster

George Clooney, Bernie Mac, Brad Pitt, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts play off one another as if they have been acting together all their life. With a cast like this do you need any other reason to watch such a film, besides the excitement and the magic?

Close to the 1960’s Ocean’s Eleven, here is an exciting adventure and puzzle to watch. Ocean’s Eleven starts with a bang and ends with a complacent group standing in front of the Bellagio fountain light show. Danny Ocean (George Clooney), recently released from jail, gathers just the right group of con artists, pick pockets and immoral crew to pull off the biggest con ever, robbing three Vegas casinos owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Amongst the talented crew is the dashing and always eating Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), a young pup of a pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), and a British accent pyro Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle).

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Your Mission if You Choose to Accept It

  • Title: Mission: Impossible III
  • IMDB: link

mission-impossible-3-posterI wasn’t a fan of the first film, but enjoyed Mission: Impossible II for its style and big stunts (and the delectable Thandie Newton), but this film finally is what I’ve been waiting for from the franchise.  Big elaborate stunts, a comprehensible plot, a bad-ass villain, and a team of IMF agents working together doing their jobs (and not all killed off in the first ten minutes) this is the Mission: Impossible I’ve been waiting for.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has given up active assignments for the IMF and now trains recruits and spends time with his fiance Julia (Michelle Monaghan) who doesn’t know what he really does for a living.  Hunt is finally happy and at peace until a friend from the IMF (Billy Crudup) contacts him and tells him his star pupil (Keri Russell) has been taken hostage.  Hunt returns to the field with his team (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Maggie Q) for a rescue mission.

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