After The Sunset: Review By derekmay

Heist movies are typically the black sheep of the industry. When they’re cool, they’re ultra-cool. When they’re not, they’re often painful to watch. So when you assemble a team like director Brett Ratner, 007 himself Pierce Brosnan, the luscious Salma Hayek and the perpetual jumping-white-man Woody Harrelson, odds are definitely in your favor that you’ve got something special.

This film does not disappoint. While making good on the slicker-than-snot theft scenes that every good heist movie hangs their hat on, the movie injects some of that much-needed humor, style, babes and emotion that is so sorely lacking in pedestrian fare. What we get is a jambalaya of sp*cy treats, satisfying our hunger while keeping things hot, never settling for one genre over another. There’s some serious drama, gripping tension, side-splitting humor and mouth-watering eye-candy. Add in the unique (and pleasantly logical) twists and you’ve got a classic rivaling ‘To Catch A Thief’ or ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’

The credit for this winner, however, must be shared. We start off where every good movie starts - with a brilliant script. The writing utilizes an industry standard for characters, twists and captivatingly exotic locales, all the hallmarks producers are begging for. Running with that idea, we find an aging (albeit very well) thief enjoying retirement with his beautiful companion in a lush tropical setting. Babes, beaches and boredom. Something’s missing. In steps Harrelson as the bumbling FBI agent chomping at the bit to see Brosnan get his due, and perhaps stop him from stealing his brass ring, a magnificent and highly guarded Napoleon diamond.

This is where the movie takes off. Where we could have easily been left with a Thief vs. Cop scenario of cloak and dagger cat and mouse, we get instead a unique and pleasantly engaging interaction. These two guys play off each other so well you’d think it was a buddy picture. Brosnan brings his suave, debonair charm to light so well there’s not a doubt in our minds this guy is clever, generous and definitely up to something. Harrelson uses his goofy comedic assets to craft his agent into someone we believe would latch on like a pit bull one minute, then trip down the stairs the next. Such a feat is incredibly difficult to pull off believably and Woody does it so effortlessly I worry audiences might miss the art behind it.

Rounding out the cast (pun intended) is Salma Hayek, looking so incredibly gorgeous it’s sometimes hard to concentrate. But this is a beauty with brains, and she brings to life a dimensional character that is far more than window dressing, and actually serves the plot. With Don Cheadle bringing up the rear as a disarmingly sinister criminal, the cast alone would be enough to hit this script into a homerun that’d knock down sputnik.

So is it any wonder that with ‘Rush Hour’ and ‘Red Dragon’ director Brett Ratner at the helm you also have a beautiful looking film. The pacing is tight, but Ratner knows how to keep those comedic moments vibrant and well-timed. In a movie where susp*cions run high and everyone is after something, you would think that breaking the tension with a scene like Pierce and Woody out fishing would be a death sentence. On the contrary, Ratner crafts the entire movie so that we get a seamless flow between cooky and credible, never skipping a beat.

I can’t say enough about this movie so I’ll just keep it simple. There’s almost nothing not the like here. With an all-star cast that seems tailor-made for their roles, a script that delivers without insulting your intelligence or giving too much away, and a director that knows how to bring it all together, you get all the benefit of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ in the gorgeous Bahamas. The only thing criminal here is if this movie doesn’t end up a hit!