Best Heist Movies

[Patricia Abbott]

After seeing the semi-pallid Ocean's Thirteen (okay, the guys looked pretty good), we got into a discussion of the best heist movies ever. Which movies stand out in your mind? For instance, someone said Dog Day Afternoon, but would that really count? Should a heist movie be mostly about planning and executing a heist and not sidebar into other issues.

[Patricia Abbott]

Boy, is that the truth. I hated it when Montreal stood in for my town in The Virgin Suicides. Way too distinctive to fool anyone. Montreal, not Grosse Pointe.
And Detroit only gets shots of the skyline to identify it. No one's brave enough to shoot here. (Except Curtis Armstrong in Eight Mile when they couldn't avoid it)

[Kevin Wignall]

Lisa, I'm certain "Three Kings" was pitched as a remake of the aforementioned "Kelly's Heroes".

[Brendon Macaraeg]

Another thumbs up for both HEAT and THIEF (Michael Mann does crime really well).

Another heist favorite is THE KILLING (Kubrick).

[Todd Mason]

Odds Against Tomorrow is the only outstanding one (the cast, the mood, the John Lewis score) that comes to mind not mentioned so far, and I still haven't read William McGivern's novel to see if it shares the incredibly over-the-top ending. Castle Keep might just qualify, by its fingernails.

[Patricia Abbott]

You are the king of the esoteric choices. I've never seen the first. I bet netflix won't have it.

[Todd Mason]

You'd lose that bet, apparently. I guess we really should forgive Robert Wise for The Sound of Music and Star Trek: The Motionless Picture (as Harlan Ellison was the first to dub it in my ken) given so much of the other work.

[Patricia Abbott]

It's now number 159 on my list. I'd move it to the top but I have six heist movies up there already. Even we have our genre limits.

[Todd Mason]

Hm. Come to think of it, does industrial espionage count as a heist? If so, I'll suggest the Hong Kong film So Close...Bill Crider seemed to like it, after it made its way up his queue.

[Daniel Hatadi]

People have already piped in with Heat and Inside Man, but there are plenty of good recommendations amongst this lot. Must make sure to check them out.

Except I haven't felt the desire to see any of the Ocean's films. In my country's vernacular, I would refer to them as 'wanky'. But who knows, I haven't seen them.

[Patricia Abbott]

They're competently done in their own way, but so inauthentic to me. Too slick, too smooth, too pretty. I guess the original was like that and I guess some of the films mentioned here from that era have the same sort of Bondish or New Wave feel. But now it feels slavishly imitative. And everyone is so smug and pleased with himself. If there was ever style over substance..

[Daniel Hatadi]

When I was younger I used to think that smug know-it-all types where kind of cool, but now I'm more fascinated with characters that are generally hopeless or at least have flaws other than their superiority.

[Patricia Abbott]

Amen.