Saturday, November 6, 2004

AFTER "AFTER THE SUNSET:" Visited the sneak preview of this comedy heist film, starring Pierce Brosnan, Woody Harrelson, and Salma Hayek's breasts. It's not spectacular, but it's entertaining, albeit rather predictable. Brosnan is playing Remington Steele yet again, Woody pulls out his standard "dumb hick" schtick, and Salma's breasts, as always, deliver a nice performance (although Hayek herself still can't act). Don Cheadle, as usual, seems to have wandered in from another movie to deliver a couple of strange monologues, including one about "the free love philosophy of the Mamas and the Papas" that makes almost no sense whatsoever. Naomi Harris, who disappears completely at the end of the film, has a nice part as a local cop, but seems to be there for an unexplored and unnecessary comic subplot involving the local police chief.

The plot, revolving around a retired jewel thief, his girlfriend, and the FBI agent chasing them in the environs of (product-placed resort casino), is fairly predictable, and suffers (like many heist films) from the difficulty of ending it. Do the bad guys get away? Does the cop get them? Are the bad guys actually moral? The ending chosen by the movie tries to make everyone happy, but winds up being an increasingly ridiculous series of double-crosses. All told, though, it's a decent time at the movies, but it's no "Thomas Crown Affair," which is probably the best heist film of the last 10 years, with "Ocean's 11" being a very close second.

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