The redneck NASCAR heist.

Presentation:

From the director of Oceanโ€™s Eleven, Soderbergh gives us a fresh heist film departing from the traditional fancy, sexy, white collar heists weโ€™ve been exposed to in the past. The heist takes place in red neck North Carolina NASCAR orchestrated by an unlikely and unbecoming pair of disabled brothers. Channing Tatum is the mastermind, but heโ€™s quite soft spoken and itโ€™s hard to believe heโ€™d be capable of such a heist. The side characters of Daniel Craig and even the surprising Seth MacFarlane are much more charismatic, which lead to a weird dynamic. Tatum feels flat and invisible, overshadowed by the other cast, which leads to a similar experience of the Oceanโ€™s movies, but here it doesnโ€™t make as much sense. But all the misfits are very charming and there is definitely magic in the bottle that made me watch this twice. Presentation wise the film is notable for an extremely minimal color grade, which looks to be basic Rec709 with Red DSMC2 and Leica lenses. If you wanted to see what Red cameras look like in cinema, here it is. The basic grade makes the film feel natural and ordinary, definitely leading to a grounded, less cinematic experience but it ultimately works and feels more home grown.

Conclusion:

This film was supposed to get sequels and prequels, but it seems anything with Daniel Craig is doomed to be cut short. This is understandable as he was pushed into 10 years of bond films so it makes sense heโ€™d want to do more variety of films than franchises. Heโ€™s definitely the most interesting character in this film, but ultimately itโ€™s the heart of the story that takes the stage. A disarming and surprisingly enthralling heist thatโ€™ll take you by surprise.


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Gladiator (2000)

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Geraldโ€™s Game (2017)