646f9e108c A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. David Ghantt discovers the true meaning of adventure far beyond his wildest dreams. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. Day in and day out he drives an armored vehicle, transporting millions of other people's money with no escape in sight. The only glimmer of excitement is his flirtatious work crush Kelly Campbell who soon lures him into the scheme of a lifetime. Along with a group of half-brained criminals led by Steve Chambers and an absurdly faulted heist plan, David manages the impossible and makes off with $17 million in cash…only problem is he foolishly hands the money over to this wild group of double crossers and has been set up to take the fall. With the bandits blowing the millions on lavish and ridiculous luxuries, they leave behind a glaring trail of evidence. Now on the lam and in over his head, David must dodge the authorities, evade a hilarious hit man, Mike McKinney, and try to turn the tables on the ones he trusted most. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time! Loved it! We constantly quote this movie now. Director Jared Hess made his debut with Napoleon Dynamite, an unusual "indie" comedy whose uncomfortable sense of humor captured the imagination of many spectators; unfortunately, he then declined very much with the atrocious Nacho Libre. And afterwards… well, I frankly didn't even know about the existence of his following films, Gentlemen Broncos and Don Verdean. But for Masterminds, his most recent film, Hess earned the trust of a medium studio (now bankrupt) and recruited various famous actors to tell a story which would seem absurd if it wasn't based on true events (a quick visit to Wikipedia indicates that the criminals were quite inept, but not to the extreme suggested by the movie). Independently from its historical fidelity, I found Masterminds quite a funny comedy, dedicated to celebrate the stupidity of various individuals motivated by ambition, and subject to the incongruous whims of destiny, which occasionally help them and occasionally damage them. It's a style of comedy which is difficult to define, and even more difficult to execute with the appropriate balance of satire and seriousness in order not to make the characters too cartoonish. And I think that co-screenwriters Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey could achieve that, because the first thing they did was establishing the eccentric personalities of the characters; once we accept themcredible human beings, the other pieces of the puzzle fall into their place. Zach Galifianakis was born to play "losers" with a good heart; his bizarre appearance and his capacity to make a fool without losing his dignity make him the ideal actor for his role in here, weird in the outside, but with sincere emotions. Kristen Wiig also makes a solid work in her character, while Owen Wilson is perfectthe "brain" of the robbery and Jason Sudeikis distillates repugnancethe hit-man in charge of… tying loose ends. And I also liked the performances from Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Ken Marino. I think Masterminds is a good reflection of Hess' evolution: same uncomfortable sense of humorNapoleon Dynamite, but with more narrative discipline; and of course, with peculiar characters trapped into a crazy adventure which still feels consistent with their nature and motivation. It's not a universal humor, but I found it more accessible than the one of Napoleon Dynamite, and genuinely funny, instead of just being "awkward". Masterminds is a bit of an interesting case study,it is basically a Coen brothers film but put through a mechanism that removes all the wit, visual style or excitement. In its place are tortuously dull set-pieces, rambling dialogue and banal stagings.
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