Robin Hood and his merry men are back. This is time though, it is not about money, or survival. It about righting a wrong perpetrated on a pack rat.
Reubens, the still flamboyant man of Vegas past is worried about being laid to rest alive on an ice slab. He therefore enters into a deal with Bank, a super successful property owner and a career backstabber, betting on the unwritten bond that exists between men that shook hands with Sinatra. He wouldn't, would he?!
He does, and leaving him with nothing save a $10000 poker chip and a myocardial infarction.
The merry men gather, and decide to win back Reuben's money and more importantly his joie-de-vivre.
The movie is about a multitude of capers, electronic, seismic, polymeric, of strange bedfellows, and some tongue in cheek humour. The movie is good, but isn't as pleasing as the first one or even the second one. The earlier editions did great jobs of keep the action going throughout. This one is a heavily back loaded, the first half being a very long and unduly slow lead up. Also, the audience knows how each trick is going to play out. Rather than discovering a sweet deception that they had failed to notice which was key to the first two.
It is light-hearted. It makes fun of a lot of things - Oprah, and mexican sweat shops. The carried over cast is good, and predictable. Of the newcomers, Al Pacino (Bank) seems to be trying very hard to be a ruthless man, but is really a Corleone on the brink of retirement. In fact, his character would have been better off being a little more comic. The last time I saw Ellen Barkin (Bank's flunky) in a movie, was in the Big Easy, when she was effortlessly hot in an intense way. Here she is just a pale shadow of that smouldering self.
The verdict ? Ultimately it is like a mutual break up date. Reminds you of things that were great, but you know it has come to an end. You will go, but only to say so long.
By,
Nikhil Pednekar
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