If nothing else, that’s likely a sad indication of the struggles of the mid-level genre movie these days. ‘Heist’ feels like a script that was written for the late 1990s direct-to-video market, sold in a coked-up pitch meeting with the line, “It’s like Reservoir Dogs meets Speed!” The thing then stuck around until director Scott Mann (no relation to Michael) managed to con all these actors into doing it. Maybe this will work out? Or not… Honestly, who cares? Fortunately, Vaughn has the kind eyes that Gina Carano’s cop knows she can trust. Next thing you know, they’re trying to make a getaway on a public bus because, yes, this thing is a low rate ‘Speed’ knockoff as well. So, they team up, do the heist, and shockingly it all goes wrong. He just needs a man further inside the business with the right information to pull off the job. There’s also an embittered Dave Bautista playing a man tired of being hired muscle. But no, he’s a jerk.įortunately, Vaughn is not the only disgruntled employee around that floating gambling den. She has a big surgery that he’s hoping his boss (Robert De Niro, who must owe back taxes or something) might help him with. This time he plays Vaughn, a father with a terminally ill daughter that his meager boat casino salary can’t afford to support.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan continues his sad streak of headlining movies that are unworthy of his talents. Paying any attention to it will just needlessly slow down that process. The movie is on a one-way trip to obscurity. You might even force yourself into thinking you like it for a while because you’re so fond of all the faces trotting across the screen.

Somehow, the film got a remarkable cast, so the production values are glossy and the initial release is theatrical.

This is a film so tediously lame and formulaic that it should grace only the very bottom of truck stop DVD bins. With a title as generic as ‘Heist’, you know you’re in for a rough watch (unless it’s David Mamet’s ‘Heist’, which sadly is not the case today).

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