Bandits

Despite a plot as old as the hills and a title that pitches for outlaw nostalgia, this is a reasonable hybrid, a character-led comic ramble along the highways and byways of genre - buddy pic, heist film, romance and road movie. Add light media satire and, with Levinson's emphasis on performance and dialogue, you have a higher-end studio project, albeit overlong and uneven, with a residue of indie spirit. It opens kinetically enough as Joe Blake (Willis), a hardman with a penchant for perusing Zen texts, breaks out of jail on a cement lorry with neurotic fellow con Terry Collins (Thornton). The two soon earn the moniker of 'the sleepover bandits' for their relaxed kidnappings of bank managers the night before a job. Along the road they pick up Kate Wheeler (Blanchett) and there ensues the inevitable falling in and out of love and trouble. This kind of picture would be dead in the saddle, if it weren't for enjoyable playing and some sprightly lines here.