A crime movie that goes broke trying to go for broke on the internet.
“How to Rob a Bank” is a crime comedy that channels the crimes that become popular in the media. Think of how “Natural Born Killers” had Charlie Manson fans celebrating the serial murderers Mickey and Mallory. Think of how Johnson Wen respectively caught The Weeknd, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande completely off guard thanks to their lousy security systems. And think of how “Scream 4” was re-examined for its representation of the extreme lengths youngsters would go for internet fame.
In this movie’s case, “How to Rob a Bank” is a popular YouTube series, where four robbers wearing animal masks rob small banks near rivers and forests for quick escapes. They teach viewers how to rob banks, how to wear untraceable costumes, and how to beat the police response time of 4-6 minutes. And they’re also in the tradition of “Robin Hood.” You know. They rob from the rich and give to the poor. Although these days, I ponder whether the church leaders and donors would have the morality to turn the money into the police or keep the money because of how the banking system failed them.
Now that is a good idea for a movie directed by David Leitch, but the problem is it doesn’t take full advantage of its premise. We get to the videos, then the perspectives of the law enforcers, then the drama of what led the influencers to their criminal ways, and the big finale with fans in the tradition of “Joker” and “V for Vendetta.” It’s only entertaining with its social media fanbase and stylized action, but the rest is too cynical and unfunny to really push things further. I guess the screenplay needs to rob more banks in order to go for broke.
The place for the robberies is Pittsburgh, and Ryan A.K.A. The Wolf (Nicholas Hoult) is leader of the pack and host of the series. He wears a wolf mask, and during his tutorial videos, he does wear costumes like Deadpool dressing up like Ferris Bueller in his post-credit scene. And the other members of his pack consist of his wife and getaway car driver Emi (Anna Sawai), the war vet and family man Vince (Pete Davidson), and the social media manager Hugo (Rhenzy Feliz).
The law enforcer in this movie is an aging FBI agent named John West (John C. Reilly), and he enlists the help of a hacker named Reagan (Zoe Kravitz) to track the criminal influencers down. She developed a program to track the most untraceable people, which got her under house arrest when her technology fell into the wrong hands, but he’s willing to pardon her if she helps him.
A decade ago, we had the great bank robbing movie “Hell or High Water.” So you know the professionals, will eventually find themselves dealing with the cops and agents. This is when the film develops cynicism, and this is when you need some action sequences to try to fight back against it.
“How to Rob a Bank” only has fun with how Hoult wears the wolf mask and puts on different costumes, and how the bank robberies are played out. The music, style, and energy all levitates those scenes, especially if there are other YouTubers or TikTokers are tying to be like their idols. But I wonder why this film couldn’t satirize the genre, by showing us different perspectives of those followers or deal with the ambition of its “Robin Hood” concept. Yes, we do get to the greedy banker (Christian Slater), and we do acknowledge the motives of the criminals. But we don’t get the risks needed to make this a crime movie at Leitch’s level. In fact, this might be his weakest film since “Hobbs and Shaw.”
I would mention that Steven Soderbergh knows the crime genre, but with the social media talk, it probably would have diminished his talents. He can handle crime his own way, so Leitch can handle it his own way. We should like where he’s going, but we end being disappointed in how he and writer Mark Bianculli plan things out. This is when you need to click the Unsubscribe button.
