''Masterminds'' is a 2016 American

crime comedy film 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 ...

based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery in North Carolina. Directed by

Jared Hess Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on ''Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004), ''Nacho Libre'' (2006) and '' Gentlemen Broncos ...

and written by Chris Bowman,

Hubbel Palmer Hubbel Palmer is an American actor and screenwriter best known for his roles as Carl in the film '' Moving McAllister'' (2007) and as Tracy Orbison in the independent film ''American Fork'' ( "Humble Pie") (2007) which he wrote. Filmography R ...

and

Emily Spivey Emily Spivey (born September 29, 1971) is an American television writer, producer, actress, and creator of the series '' Up All Night'' and '' Bless the Harts''. She previously worked as a staff writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2001 to 2010 ...

, the film stars

Zach Galifianakis Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in ''Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show '' Late World with Zach'' on VH1. Galifianakis has starred in films including ''T ...

Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for '' Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she jo ...

Kate McKinnon Kate McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions on the sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (2012–2022), of which she was a cas ...

, Leslie Jones and

Jason Sudeikis Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. In 20 ...

. It premiered in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

on September 26, 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on September 30, 2016, by Relativity

EuropaCorp EuropaCorp S.A. (stylised in opening logo as EUROPA CORP.) is a French motion picture company headquartered in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and one of a few full service independent studios that both produces and distributes feature ...

Distribution and

Relativity Media Relativity Media is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commerciall ...

. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $30 million.

Plot

In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. After some awkward training in preparation for the robbery, the team has David go inside Loomis' vault and load the entire money supply into the company's van. Before he leaves, he takes out three CCTV tapes, but misses one. The next day, David flees to Mexico with $20,000 and takes the cover name "Michael McKinney", which is the name of a friend of Steve's. Meanwhile, Steve takes most of the heist, around $17 million.

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Special Agent Scanlon and her partner take the case, and immediately have David as the

prime suspect ''Prime Suspect'' is a British police procedural television drama series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, who ...

, but have no idea of Steve's involvement. Steve plans to cut him loose but Kelly thinks it would be wrong to abandon him. In Mexico, David narrowly evades three

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

agents looking for him, and calls Kelly about what happened. He inadvertently learns Steve's name from the ID in a wallet that Kelly gave him. With his cover blown, Steve hires the real, but unstable hitman, Michael McKinney to hunt David down. He finds David and attempts to shoot him, but the gun backfires and he escapes. David phones Kelly and learns that Steve is trying to kill him, and will not send the money for him as expected. David is then knocked unconscious by McKinney. When heregains consciousness, McKinney is about to kill him but reconsiders upon looking at "McKinney"'s birth certificate, thinking that David was born under the same circumstances; they become friends. David calls Steve, threatening to surrender himself to Interpol if he does not wire $6 million into his bank account within two days. Kelly is then attacked by Jandice, who learns of her involvement with David, at the mall and escapes. When Steve refuses to wire the money, his two friends kidnap Kelly and he tells David to get a ticket to South America in exchange for her release. At the airport, David meets McKinney, who is returning to the U.S., but as he bids farewell he sees Kelly's name written on his hand and tells him that she is his girlfriend. Realizing that he cannot bring himself to kill her, they switch tickets just as the three Interpol agents attempt to catch David. While Steve is hosting a party, the FBI puts a wire on one of the party members in an attempt to record Steve's confession. David sneaks in and rescues Kelly. They escape by stealing Steve's BMW but it crashes as they attempt to drive through the gate. Steve catches and assaults him, until David realizes he is near the FBI van with the agents inside. David tricks Steve into admitting that he was the mastermind of the whole plan, giving the agents enough reason to arrest all of them, including Kelly. David is sentenced to seven years in prison, while Steve served eleven years. About $2 million is still unaccounted for. Upon David's release, he is picked up by McKinney and they drive to visit Kelly.

Cast

as David Scott Ghantt *

as Kelly Campbell *

as Steven Eugene "Steve" Chambers *

as Michael Aaron "Mike" McKinney *

as Jandice Gartrell * Leslie Jones as FBI Special Agent Scanlon *

Mary Elizabeth Ellis Mary Elizabeth Ellis (born May 11, 1979) is an American actress, best known for her recurring roles as The Waitress on the FX comedy ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), Nick's ex-girlfriend Caroline in the Fox sitcom ''New ...

as Michelle Chambers *

Ken Marino Kenneth Joseph Marino (born December 19, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He was a cast member on MTV's ''The State'' and has starred in shows such as '' Party Down'', '' Marry Me'', '' Burning Love'', and '' Chil ...

as Doug * Karsten Friske as Cort Chambers * Dallas Edwards as Ken Chambers * Devin Ratray as Runny *

Jon Daly Jon Daly, sometimes credited as Jonathan C. Daly, Jon C. Daly or Jonathan Barney Daly, is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer best known for his sketch comedy work on the Comedy Central series ''Kroll Show''. In 2013 he starred as H ...

as Detective * Ross Kimball as Eric * Jordan Israel as Valet * Njema Williams as Ty * Kerry Rossall as Trunk Hostage

Production

On February 1, 2013, Jim Carrey joined the cast. On June 10, 2013,

joined the cast of the film. On December 3, 2013,

joined the cast to replace Carrey after he dropped out. On May 16, 2014,

joined the cast, and on June 25, 2014,

was added as well. On June 30, 2014,

, Devin Ratray, Leslie Jones,

and Ross Kimball joined the cast. On July 10,

joined the cast of the film to play an FBI agent. The film was produced by Brent Almond. David Ghantt was a technical consultant for the film, but due to outstanding court-ordered

restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court ...

for his part in the heist he was not paid.

Filming

The title used in media coverage was ''Untitled Armored Car''.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began on July 7, 2014, in Old Fort and Swannanoa,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

in the

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...

area. On July 29, Galifianakis was spotted in a prisoner's costume, during filming in the streets of downtown Asheville, which were made over. The BB&T Center building, also the location of the production office, was transformed into the "Park Street Citizens Bank", with a Loomis Fargo burgundy truck parked outside of the entrance. The crew also shot the film on the steps of Buncombe County Courthouse, inside of the Buncombe County Jail, and in front of the Mediterranean Restaurant.

Release

The film was released in the United States on September 30, 2016.''Detroit Free Press'', '' 'Masterminds' turns real crime into goofy fun'', by Katie Walsh, page 2C, 29 September 2016 The film was previously scheduled to be released on August 19, 2015, a date which, in July 2015, Relativity rescheduled to October 9, 2015. The company pushed back the date because it was facing a financial crisis. The film was pulled from the October 9, 2015 release date before being released on September 30, 2016. ''Masterminds'' was released in North America on September 30, 2016. The film was projected to gross $10 million from 3,042 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2,325,546 on its first day. It went on to gross $6,541,205 in its opening weekend, finishing 6th at the box office. The film went on to gross $29,674,699 worldwide against a $25 million production budget. Additional prints and advertising costs were estimated to be in excess of $20 million.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 34% based on reviews from 99 critics, with an average rating of 4.63/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Mastermind''s great cast and stranger-than-fiction true story are largely wasted on a scattershot comedy with a handful of funny moments and far too much wackiness." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, mainly criticizing its lack of good jokes: "The laughs evaporate almost as soon as they land, and some (make that most) of them don't land at all.... ''Masterminds'' owes us our two hours back." On the other hand,

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

of '' RogerEbert.com'' gave the film three out of four stars, stating that "If smart dumb comedies hold a place in your heart, you'll like 'Masterminds.'" Although he acknowledged the film's weakness in its length, structure, and pacing, he emphasized that "Most of the time in these kinds of films the notes of sweetness, naivete and regret feel forced.... Here, though, you believe the sweetness, because Hess and his cast sell it with poker faces."

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' also gave praise to the film, writing that "Yes, the comedy is funny—even when it’s not laugh-out-loud funny, it’s sparklingly inventive and charmingly loopy—but, above all, it has the religious intensity and spiritual resonance that marks all of Hess’s other films, and it extends his world of ideas into wild new realms, extends his vision into darker corners of existence than he had formerly contemplated." He also observed the filmmaking of Hess as "suggest nga kinship with the transcendental cinema of

Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have l ...

and Carl Theodor Dreyer.... his images belong to a similar realm of astonishment, even if his are frankly comedic where theirs are irreconcilably tragic." The film was a finalist for an

AML Award The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website. T ...

in film.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Masterminds (2015 Film) 2016 films 2016 comedy films 2010s crime comedy films 2010s heist films American crime comedy films American heist films Comedy films based on actual events Crime films based on actual events Films directed by Jared Hess Films produced by Lorne Michaels Films scored by Geoff Zanelli Films set in North Carolina Films set in 1997 Films set in the 1990s Films shot in North Carolina Relativity Media films Biographical films about criminals 2010s English-language films 2010s American films