“Stealing from the Pope is suicide,” Vaughn.

Vaughn (Jeffery Dean Morgan) works at a riverboat casino run with an iron-hand by Pope (Robert De Niro). Initially he turns down an offer by Cox, one of his co-workers, to pull off an inside job and steal money from Pope. The problem is that sometimes life situations can change you.

Riley, Vaughn’s young daughter, is sick and he promises to pay the hospital by Friday so that Riley doesn’t lose her spot. When he asks Pope for the $300,000 he needs, Pope says no. Derrick a.k.a. “The Dog” violently throws Vaughn out of Pope's office. Desperate to keep his daughter in the hospital so that she can receive the treatment she needs to live, Vaughn has no choice but to join Cox and steal the money.

The heist doesn’t quite go as planned. The three thieves are forced to take the $3 million and hijack a city bus to get away - bus number 657. The bus, turned getaway vehicle, is driven by Bernie (D.B. Sweeney), a Ralph Kramden-like driver. Also pulled into the mix is Kris, a cop searching to find the truth behind the bizarre heist. Good cops, crooked cops, a crazy murderous henchmen and one of the most powerful, unforgiving gangsters in the city – will Vaughn be able to save his daughter?

Great movie moments:

Robert De Niro, of course, brings star power to any film.

The Heist is a cross between Speed (the bus is almost the star of the movie), John Q (father goes through desperate measures to get medical care for his kid), with a little bit of the Honeymooners (wise-cracking bus driver) thrown in.

Jeffery Dean Morgan is such a great “average joe” type guy, the audience identifies with him as a struggling father rather than a thief. He brings warmth to the role.

Good performances by a well-rounded cast including Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kate Bosworth and Dave Bautista

The movie contains many twists and turns, though predictable in afterthought, they do catch you by surprise.

Not so great movie moments:

The Heist will remind you of the movie Speed at almost every turn (pun intended). The helicopters hovering overhead showing the bus chase play-by-play. The newscasters reporting the situation. The bus storyline provides plenty of deja-vu moments.

I’m glad that I stuck it out when viewing this movie. The beginning was so slow, I almost stopped watching. The end, however, grabs your attention and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The language was horrible. Some movies pick a particular word and use it relentlessly throughout. In this case the word begins with the letter “F”. At times it was so distracting I found myself literally counting how many times it was used per sentence. I think that forcing De Niro to use this language incessantly was insulting to him as an actor.

Morris Chestnut? His performance as “Dog” was way over the top.

I give this movie 2 out of 5 stars. Primarily because of the language and the extremely slow pacing at the beginning of the movie.

Details:

Director: Scott Mann

Rating: -R Nude scenes and over-the-top use of language will highly offend those with a sensitivity to inappropriate language.

Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes



I rented this movie from the local video store and have not been compensated for this review.