''How to Rob a Bank (and 10 Tips to Actually Get Away with It)'' is an American
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
crime comedy
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
film. It finished filming in March 2006. It premiered at the 2007
Los Angeles Film Festival
The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...
, and opened in
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
in the United States on February 8, 2008. The film is about a man who gets caught in the middle of a bank robbery, ending up in the vault with one of the robbers he then treats as a hostage. After grossing $1,006 in the domestic market, the film was released on DVD on September 2, 2008. The film makes many references to the famous British pop band
Duran Duran
Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...
.
Plot
As he tries to access an ATM to retrieve his last twenty bucks, Jason “JINX” Taylor runs into a snag – the transaction fee will overdraw him, and he cannot get his money out of the bank. Jinx fumes about this and other hidden charges which complicate his life…as we realize that he is locked in a bank vault…with the beautiful but tied-up Jessica, her apparently a hostage. Jessica is kept gagged with tape on her mouth. But, as Jinx rails against corporations and how they stack the deck, we realize that the situation is very different from what it appears: in fact, it is Jessica, not Jinx, who is robbing the bank. She is aligned with Simon, who leads an armed team inside the branch. However, Jinx’s entry into the scenario upsets the heist, leading him and Jessica to be inadvertently locked inside the vault. In addition, Jinx has called the cops, who, led by Officer DeGepse, have surrounded the bank. Jinx makes contact with Simon by cell phone, and the situation becomes clearer, as he realizes Jessica has access to a special inside-the-vault computer and its codes…she and only she can open the vault door. Simon becomes increasingly upset when he is unable to strong-talk Jinx into getting the vault open (so the robbers can clear out the safe deposit boxes). And DeGepse is equally frustrated by the standoff, particularly when it is Jinx, not he, who seems to gain control over the situation.
As things progress, Jinx realizes that he and Jessica actually think very much alike – they both feel used – and this new kinship leads them to plot an escape. A call comes in from Nick, the true mastermind of the robbery, and Jinx and Jessica realize that Nick needs them to issue a PIN for him to access funds which have been skimmed (from fees, of course) over the course of years. With Simon increasingly unstable, Jinx is able to manipulate both him and DeGepse while also making a deal with Nick to provide a PIN (controlled by Jinx and Jessica) to go with Nick’s account information. Jinx manages to talk both cops and robbers into letting Jessica and him out, as freed hostages, and in the ensuing chaos, they slip away, to meet Nick and escape with their cut of the cash…
Cast
*
Nick Stahl
Nicolas Kent Stahl (born December 5, 1979) is an American actor. Starting out as a child actor, he gained recognition for his performance in the 1993 film ''The Man Without a Face'', co-starring Mel Gibson.
He later transitioned into his adult ...
as Jason Taylor, or Jinx, The Innocent Civilian.
*
Erika Christensen
Erika Jane Christensen (born August 19, 1982) is an American actress and singer whose filmography includes roles in ''Traffic'' (2000), '' Swimfan'' (2002), ''The Banger Sisters'' (2002), ''The Perfect Score'' (2004), ''Flightplan'' (2005), '' ...
as Jessica, The Hostage.
*
Gavin Rossdale
Gavin McGregor Rossdale (born 30 October 1965) is an English guitarist and actor, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Bush. He helped form Bush in 1992; on the band's separation in 2002, he became the lead singer ...
as Simon, The Leader of the Bank Robbers and the main
antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist.
Etymology
The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...
of the film.
*
Terry Crews
Terry Alan Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor, television host, and former American footballer. He played Julius Rock in the UPN/ CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris'', which aired from 2005 to 2009, and portrayed Terry Jeffords in ...
as Officer DeGepse, in charge of the negotiations.
*
Leo Fitzpatrick
Leonardo Aurellio Randy Fitzpatrick is an American actor and co-director of the Marlborough Chelsea gallery. He is best known as Telly in ''Kids'' (1995) and Johnny Weeks in ''The Wire'' (2002–2004).
Career
He was discovered at age 14 by d ...
as Gunman, a henchman.
* Adriano Aragon as Officer Linstrom, DeGepse's partner.
*
David Carradine
David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series ''Kung Fu'', playi ...
as Nick, the mastermind and main
villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...
of the film.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
* {{AllRovi movie, 405751, How to Rob a Bank
2007 films
2000s crime comedy films
2000s heist films
2007 independent films
American crime comedy films
American heist films
American independent films
Films about bank robbery
IFC Films films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films