Who's In It: Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia, Skeet Ulrich, Columbus Short, Amaury Nolasco
The Basics: Down on their luck, some armored-truck drivers decide to stick it to the bank that's about to foreclose on one of their homes. They hope to make off with a clean $42 million in plastic-sealed blocks of bills, and because the man threatened with foreclosure is also an Iraq vet and about to lose custody of his orphan brother without a quick cash infusion into his life, you're more or less forced to get on board for them getting away with it. (Because, really, screw the banks. What have they done for you lately?) However, if you've ever seen a heist movie then you know that these best laid plans will quickly devolve into a lot of people getting shot in the face.
What's The Deal: As opposed to a stylish, swaggering heist movie like Reservoir Dogs or The Bank Job, this is a straight-up, no-frills, steal-stuff movie. And by "no frills" I mean that the only character you know anything about is the vet in need (save for cop Milo Ventimiglia's longstanding love of chili cheese dogs), the dialogue never veers from people discussing what's happening right in front of them, the action is contained in a small space, there's exactly one chase and one crash and one explosion and the ending comes sooner than you expected with no fanfare. If this were a product on a shelf it would be the generic brand. You wouldn't hate yourself for buying it but you wouldn't remember much about it after you used it either.
How To Spot A Mediocre Film Before Buying A Ticket: This one is sort of textbook. No critics' screenings, forgettable one-word title, co-stars Jean Reno (who'll pretty much be in just about any film offered to him these days) and dropped into theaters at a weird time to cash in on audiences willing to watch anything but a serious three-hour Oscar movie. If that's what you want then here's where to get it.
Great Director Names Of All Time: Because there's not much else to say about this movie, I want to talk about director Nimrod Antal. I know I probably said this before when he made his last movie, but he really does have the kind of name you simply can't despise, even when you don't care too much about the films he makes. After all-time-champion Apichatpong Weerasethakul, this guy is at least in the top five.