Have you ever watched a movie and felt a certain way about it and then gone to read the reviews and realized that your opinion is in the minority? That’s what happened to me last night with How to Rob a Bank, directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train) and starring Nicholas Hoult as the leader of a Pittsburgh crew of bank robbers alongside Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, and Pete Davidson. I had a good time with this movie, but it appears that the vast majority of people (or, at least, those logging in to Letterboxd) kinda hated this movie? And I can see where they are coming from, to a certain extent.
This movie is a bit all over the place. It’s part caper, part heist movie, part drama, part comedy, and part eat the rich commentary – and that certainly won’t please a lot of people. I myself am usually a pretty big critic when it comes to movies not picking a lane, and not knowing which genre to stick to. It can even happen a lot with heist movies in particular – this was one of my main criticisms with Crime 101; it is mostly just a fun heist movie about a guy who is really good at robbing people on the 101, but it also wanted to be taken really seriously as a commentary on why people steal and, also, a little bit of eat the rich. I think in the past decade or so, people have felt like they can’t just make movies for fun anymore and that they have to being “saying something” as well. Part of this definitely comes from the dip in movie theater attendance, which results in a lack of box office revenue for studios, which results in them greenlighting less “just for fun” movies altogether. So writers and directors are forced to shove a lesson or a commentary into their movies when they would almost certainly just be more fun if they were…well, just fun.
On the other hand, sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the audience just needs to chill out a little. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: not every movie needs to be viewed and critiqued as if it were Citizen Kane. At the end of the day, this is a silly movie about people who wear goofy disguises and run a YouTube channel about how to rob a bank and it has some really fun action sequences in it. Sometimes people just get too high up on their horse and lose the plot on movies just being a fun escape for two hours. That being said, this movie was still far from perfect!
Zoë Kravitz was in this movie – did you know that? I saw this movie last night and I still barely remember she was in it. That’s not a good sign! She is a very talented and memorable actor, and to waste a talent such as her for a fairly bland and underdeveloped character is no bueno in my book. They tried their hardest to give us some backstory with John C. Reilly’s FBI agent character, but it felt more forced than a square peg in a round hole. The editing and pacing of this movie was quite frenetic (which worked at times) but it didn’t allow for the movie to ever really slow down and give us much character backstory or development. We got 90% of our info from a montage of FBI interrogations filled exclusively with expository dialogue that came about halfway through the movie. It was bothersome and left me wanting more, but again, it’s a fun action comedy movie about bank robbers, so I wasn’t heartbroken over it.
The main thing I kept thinking about with How to Rob a Bank, and what I focused on when drafting up this very post, was how similar this movie was to Den of Thieves. My first thought when the credits rolled was, “Ah so that was this generation’s version of Den of Thieves.” And if you have never seen Den of Thieves before, just know this – it is a heist movie that was derided for being too self serious and trying to send a message before the cult following shut those people up and said, “Hey man, this is just a fun heist movie. Relax. It’s a good time.” But the parallels were so strong between them that I just had to lay them out. Spoiler warning ahead for both movies!
- Both movies are about a group of friends who rob banks (among other buildings) together.
- Both groups of friends include former military members who felt wronged by the government.
- Both movies have someone as the getaway driver who, without anyone else knowing it, are actually the smartest member of the group.
- Both movies have a government agent hot on their tail who ends up being a sympathetic character towards the group leader.
- Both groups of robbers focus much more on misdirection and distraction to aid their heists, instead of just smash-n-grab jobs.
- Both movies involve an armored truck heist gone wrong that leads to the inevitable downfall of each group’s successful string of heists.
- Both movies involve the government agents interacting with the groups in a social setting, with each trying to gain the upper hand on the other (the Benihana scene in Den and the interrogation scene in HtRaB)
- Both movies show smaller scale heists working flawlessly that build up to the inevitable “big score” at the climax of the film.
- Both movies are overtly anti-establishment, with both groups trying to send a message through their heists and it not being “about the money.”
- Both movies have a group member thinking they got away on the road, only to get shot up and killed.
- Both movies have a group member becoming an informant, only for them to double cross the agency and help their group escape.
There are even more similarities between the two, but I didn’t take any notes while in the theater last night so that is all I can remember at this point. Point is, both movies are of the same ilk and draw comparisons to the same two films: Heat and Point Break. One is more gritty and violent, and is generally liked more and considered a “better film” (Heat/Den of Thieves), while the other is a little more goofy and lighthearted, and is generally considered the “lesser” of the two (Point Break/How to Rob a Bank). Overall I had a good time with this movie and I’m glad I went to see it. This one isn’t necessary for a theater viewing, but give it a shot when it comes to streaming and you have a weeknight where you just want to kick back and watch a heist movie.