As each of the year’s fully read pages of my life turn over, I notice that my mind and body do not always play nice together. There are things my mind tells me I can still do but my body now groans with disapproval. I know a trip to an amusement park these days means instead of ordering a snow cone I will be asking for a glass of water to accompany my 2 pills of ibuprofen. After the trees around my property release all of their leaves I can still climb up a ladder perched on the side of my house to clean out the gutters; however, my mind now recoils to the back of my head, screaming at me that I am going to fall. Sure there are some things I used to do years ago that I now wish I had the stamina to undertake; but realistically I know it would not be prudent on my part. Damn, don’t I sound so mature and adult? It was a similar dilemma that former art thief Crunch Calhoun, played by Kurt Russell (Death Proof, The Thing), was going through in this comedic crime film. After spending time in prison Crunch was coaxed into one last scheme by his half-brother Nicky, played by Matt Dillon (Crash, The Outsiders), to steal a rare book. However when two people have different motivations, no matter how good the plans were thought out, the outcome will not necessarily meet up with their expectations. The cast was made up with some decent solid actors. Seeing Kurt Russell back on the big screen produced a nostalgic feeling inside of me. It seemed to me Matt keeps playing the same type of roles, the darker edgier character of the cast. Yet with the actor Terrance Stamp (Unfinished Song, Wanted) playing Samuel Winter, I never tire of his performances; he always puts his best into each of his characters. The issue I had with this film was the lack of excitement; it came across as a typical heist movie with nothing special in it. I think listing it as a comedy was a bit of a stretch since I do not recall laughing at anything. Maybe it was because I found some of the characters were stereotypical. The other reason was the script did not give the actors much to build on to their characters. Too bad, because I felt the assembled cast would have gelled better with each other. Hopefully the actors did not feel they were too old to take risks with their roles and were only going through the motions.

2 stars