Catch him if you can, eh!
Directed by: Allan Ungar
Written by: Robert Knuckle, based on the book by Kraig Wenman
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert, Nestor Carbonell, Mel Gibson
Swift shot: It’s like a Canadian Catch Me If You Can, but set in the eighties. And believe it or not, Bandit is a ridiculously real . . . totally true story!
My dad used to always say he felt sorry for bad guys, because they never really had any movies to watch that they could enjoy. Granted, he said that before the anti-hero craze with movies like Pulp Fiction and the like. But even though our Bandit is definitely a bad guy, you can’t help but root for him the entire time. I don’t know if it was just because of Duhamel’s delivery d’charm, or if it was historically accurate, but he is certainly an affable adversary.
The story starts in Detroit, as Robert (Duhamel) easily escapes from a minimum security prison in 1985, and while most people are expecting him to flee south to Mexico, he decides to reinvent himself in Canada.
Robert is equally skilled as both a conman and stickup artist, and the reality of who he is gets blurred even for him throughout the film.
But, the one true thing in his life of lies is the love of his life, whom he meets when he first gets to Canada. Andrea (Cuthbert) runs a half-way house at a church where Robert crashes. When he meets her, he is trying to work a real job, and he’s decent at it too. But the economy is almost the real villain of the story, as it crushes the hopes and aspirations of many during my favorite decade. Hey, nobody is perfect!
To his credit, Robert does start off trying to go legit, but when the one thing you are really good at is crime, it’s only a matter of time before you fall back to what you know. And when he finds out just how lackadaisical the Canadian bank robbery response is, it’s pretty simple to get away with his dozens of crimes. In some cases robbing multiple banks in the same day! The balls on this guy, n’est pas?
Soon Robert realizes that if he wants to really cash in on these robberies, he will need some backing from a local loan shark who will bankroll (ha ha) his heists. That’s where he meets the other love of his life, Tommy (Gibson). Ok, they aren’t in love, but a budding bromance does bloom, especially when Tommy sees just how effective this gutsy guy is.
One of my favorite actresses, Olivia D’Abo plays Linda, a kind of “his gal Friday” partner with Tommy. She is underused and not developed into a real character, but she does flesh out Tommy as a gentleman crook.
Robert lives a double life with his new fiancée, Andrea. She is blissfully unaware that he is robbing banks all across the Maple Leaf nation. He comes up with a pretty brilliant cover for her too, which I won’t divulge here. And in the process of doing these heists, he becomes one of the most frequent flyers in Canada. You may have heard of “The Flying Bandit.”
[Swift aside: Oddly enough, I remember reading about this guy in an in-flight magazine.]
But even the inept Canadian police have finally had enough of this hoser robbing their treasure and a task force is formed.
Officer Snydes (Carbonell) keeps pressuring his Chief to arrest the aforementioned Tommy whom he knows is fencing and financing robberies throughout Ontario. Thing is, Tommy is pretty slick (to a point) and Snydes loves goading and poking Tommy, convinced that some day he will catch him in the act and wipe that smug look off his face. Until then, 1942!
Wait, what? Yes, Tommy has an arcade in his joint, and Snydes spends hours pumping quarters into 1942, which I must admit gave me a warm and fuzzy. I too spent many a quarter, albeit not Canadian, trying to sink the Japanese fleet in the Pacific.
So, that’s the setup, you have a band of brash bank robbers, with Robert balancing a family life and a life of crime. And you have “Project Café” which is the police task force, led by Snydes to arrest Tommy and his gang.
The coolest thing about Bandit has to be the methods Robert uses to escape each robbery. He is a master of disguise . . . somewhat. I mean, he is able to literally shed a persona in seconds, and in one terrific scene where he makes the acquaintance of Tommy he even uses a “chemical toilet” to do a Superman change as he proves his bona fides.
Now, had this been a fiction, I would have expected more excitement, but without spoiling anything, there isn’t a ton, which is a good thing, actually.
So, Bandit is not a crime thriller, per say, as nothing really thrilling happens, but it is also not boring or plodding. The tone is light-hearted and jovial, and even the police task force formed to hunt down the mastermind has a genuine feel.
If rooting for the bad guy is your bag, Bandit may be the right flick for you.
