The Split

Based (like Point Blank and The Outfit) on a novel by Richard Stark (Donald E Westlake), this often impressively bleak caper-thriller benefits enormously from its strong cast. Brown is the gang-leader who recruits a number of criminal experts to rob the LA Coliseum after a sold-out football game; Hackman is the cop who hunts him down after the chance murder of Brown's wife links him with the immaculately executed heist. Flemyng's direction is efficient if lacking in real flair, but Burnett Guffey's crisp camera-work, the taut plotting, and the generally high standard of the performances make for a pleasing, if undemanding modern noir thriller in the tradition of The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle.