Such a great story, squandered. SQUANDERED! A great book by Donald E. Westlake, on the lighter side of Crimings, but here? Slapstick. But not even good slapstick. Oof. Well, maybe some acceptable slapstick.
A bank heist, in the most literal sense. Nicely planned. Perfectly executed. It’s just… things might just go a little wrong. To say how they go wrong would ruin it, so if you want to watch how oddly they mauled a good story, you can always catch it on pluto.tv. At least until the current license runs out. It does have some good characters though including Don Calfa, the mechanic Jim from Used Cars, and a very young Bob Balaban. Plus, a totally unrecognizable Boss Hogg!
It’s kinda crazy that they definitely use many of the same characters and elements from the book, but make it so ludicrously stupid. You know who I DON’T see as a great comedic slapstick actor? George C. Scott. With the biggest bushiest caterpillar eyebrows to grace the face of man. Pure Comedy, Right? What the actual fuck. And the completely ass voice-over and trackings of fugitive Dortmunder ...I mean Ballantine, by the prison warden here? I have no words. How could they fuck up a fun story this badly? But then I remember some of the same kindsa pukes made CATStoo, so it’s understandable, at least in that perspective. Incomprehensible at the same time. It’s like that dude’s cat in a box, both states at the same time. But mostly the dead cat version here. You can’t unsmell it. Even if you don’t ‘read,’ check out this book. It’s fun and a pretty quick one to get through. And for as fercockled as it is for George C. Scott in the Main Character role and the Warden part, it is ultimately an entertaining heist movie.
