BEFORE: I watched that show on PBS about the ozone hole, how chlorofluorocarbons created an environmental nightmare that hovered over Antarctica, and how it got fixed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and a couple of scientists who pushed for legislation that banned the use of CFCs. Only that's not the whole story, because it didn't REALLY get fixed - the hole is still THERE, it's only kind of getting better, and the ozone layer of the atmosphere is on track to be fine again by 2065. I don't really call that "fixed", plus the banning of CFCs in air conditioners led to the use of HFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) instead, and they turned out to be even worse - over time this led to the buildup of greenhouse gases, which is a major cause of climate change. HFCs were only recently added to the list of banned substances, so more damage has been done, and humans once again show a tendency to respond too slowly and we keep creating more problems that need to be fixed. Sure, we got the vaccine in record time, now can we apply that same sort of can-do spirit, innovative tech and positive attitude toward addressing climate change?
I also watched the first episode of "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", because I can't just watch shows about the ozone layer, I'll get into too much of a funk that way. It was all right, not really ground-breaking like "WandaVision" was, but it should entertain me until "Black Widow" gets released, if "Black Widow" finally gets released. I've got a clear path to it now, one that fits in a bunch of documentaries in late April, but that's OK, I need to get back on politics as a topic, maybe.
In Women's History news, it's the birthday of suffragist Dorothea Beale (born in 1831), Australian suffragist Alice Henry (born in 1857), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet Phyllis McGinley (born in 1905), and actress/talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell (born in 1962). It's called Wikipedia, kids, go on and give it a try.
Forest Whitaker carries over from "The Last Stand", I think playing a federal agent in both films.
THE PLOT: In 1972, a gang of close-knit thieves from Youngstown, Ohio attempt to steal $30 million in contributions and blackmail money from President Richard Nixon's secret fund.
AFTER: More fast cars tonight, and I love a good heist movie - the question, though, then becomes "Is this a good heist movie?" What does that mean, what makes up a good heist movie? Because it's not always about the job, sometimes it's about the crazy characters that pull off the job. This one has the crazy characters and then some, but maybe it was trying a bit too hard to emphasize the crazy? Kind of like how "Baby Driver" went JUST a bit too far with its collection of psychos assigned to each job - I mean, that film made it WORK but it was in no way believable.
But what really screwed things up here was the bizarre format, the time-jumping between different years, to the point where we learn whether the heist was successful before it even happens, somehow. There's a framing sequence where Harry Barber is coming clean to his girlfriend while sitting in a diner, and then as he's explaining to her why he's wanted by the FBI, and how he's been lying to her all along and never told her his real name, then we flash back to before the heist. Which would be fine, except we also flash back to AFTER the heist, and then also to the early days of Harry's relationship with Molly, which took place while he was on the run. And then they kept bouncing between these three periods, so there are at least four timelines the audience has to keep track of, and that's just too much work.
I know what this means - someone probably laid out the story in a linear fashion, the way that time works, and for whatever reason it was deemed unsatisfying, there was no third act or fourth pivot point in the story, so they added the framing device and then basically editing was performed by throwing all the storyboards up in the air like a game of 52 pick-up, and however they picked up these index cards or whatever from the floor, that became the final sequence for the movie. Tell me I'm wrong. You might as well just start at the ending and work backwards toward the past, like "Memento" did, at least that would be a hook instead of just random.
There's still a lot to like, especially concerning the dislike for Nixon and Vietnam, plus the 70's fashion, and oh, that great music. I've been listening to Eddie Rabbit's ""Drivin' My Life Away" ever since dubbing this to DVD a couple months ago and catching that song in the opening and closing credits. Plus there's "Funk #49" from the James Gang, "Free Ride" from the Edgar Winter Group, and a few from Tommy James like "Crimson & Clover", "Mony Mony" and "Draggin' the Line". Again, it's a lot like "Baby Driver", only a bit more accessible.
And this actor does look a bit like Steve McQueen, especially if you squint. Who can blame him for wanting to be like McQueen? (The 1960's actor, not the more recent film director with the same name...) What other person on the planet was as cool as Steve-arino? You can have your James Dean, but to me McQueen was even cooler - I favor "The Great Escape" myself, but I won't argue with people who roll with "Bullitt" or "The Thomas Crown Affair" or even the original "The Magnificent Seven". All solid choices. Harry's girlfriend, however is more of a "Bonnie & Clyde" fan, even though that just didn't end well. The really big mistake here, if you ask me, is not showing Harry Barber at the end of this film, wearing a baseball glove and bouncing a ball against the wall, repeatedly. (Hint, hint)
This is based on a real bank robbery, known as the United California Bank robbery, but of course many details were changed - and that heist took place in linear order. The real crew was from Youngstown, OH, but there were seven of them, not five, and the real story explains why the guy who loved making cars go fast like Steve McQueen did was NOT the getaway driver - the movie quite noticeably glosses over this, so it has to add a few speeding infractions in the pre-heist scenes just to try to generate some excitement. The movie also gets it wrong when showing how the gang got caught - in real life, they pulled a similar job a few months later back in Ohio, because stealing $9 million in California somehow wasn't enough. After getting caught on the 2nd heist, the feds investigated their travel records and found the whole gang was in Laguna Niguel during the first robbery, which seemed like an awfully big coincidence.
I'm kind of thinking the film chose almost chose to focus on the least interesting member of the gang, except maybe for his brother who had PTSD from Vietnam. I guess if he was the last one caught that helps keep the story going, but honestly I thought William Fichtner's character deserved more attention. But I like Fichtner in nearly everything he does, he's one of those actors like Billy Bob Thornton or Jon Hamm or Guy Pearce where if you tell me he's in a movie, I'm already half-sold on it.
They never really say where or when the framing sequence takes place, the IMDB data tells me it's 1980, but I still don't know where Harry Baker hid out. And I have to make a NITPICK POINT about the depiction of an obsessive baseball card collector, he wouldn't just discard his doubles, he'd probably set them aside for trading to get other cards he didn't already have. I'd let this go, except it provides the flimsiest of connections to the Watergate scandal, which the rest of the film was sort of dancing all around but couldn't really get to - that guy from Washington was supposed to be Mark Felt, though.
Did anyone even see this movie? It had a $5.5 million budget, and according to Wiki and the IMDB the U.S. gross was $69. Not $69,000, just $69. Worldwide was only $21,000 - and this was released in March 2019, not March 2020, which would have made such a low figure understandable. I guess some films were just made for cable.
Also starring Travis Fimmel (last seen in "Warcraft"), Rachael Taylor (last seen in "Gold"), William Fichtner (last seen in "The Chumscrubber"), Jake Weary (last seen in "It: Chapter Two"), Rhys Coiro (last seen in "A Good Old Fashioned Orgy"), Louis Lombardi (last seen in "Fathers' Day"), Lily Rabe (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), John Finn (last seen in "Ad Astra"), Ric Reitz (last seen in "Killers"), Robin McDonald (last seen in "Lemon"), Kenny Alfonso (last seen in "Kill the Messenger"), with archive footage of Richard Nixon.
RATING: 5 out of 10 singles on the jukebox. (Again, kids, look it up on Wiki)
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