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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Heist (2001)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Bait and Switch

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Heist on DVD

David Mamet returns to his crime film roots via House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner for this twisty swindle caper. Heist turns out to be not as good as the former but better than the latter. Gene Hackman delivers a fiery performance as an aging con man who steals a planeload of gold bars with the help of his old time accomplice Delroy Lindo and his wife Rebecca Pidgeon. Danny DeVito plays the no-account fence, and Sam Rockwell is his sleazy nephew sent along on the job. Mamet's dialogue and situations crackle as usual, but we soon learn to anticipate when the twists are coming and what they might be.

Starring: Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay, Patti LuPone, Jim Frangione
Written by: David Mamet
Directed by: David Mamet
MPAA Rating: R for language and some violence
Running Time: 109 minutes
Date: November 9, 2001