''Scorched'' is a 2003 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 ...
directed by Gavin Grazer, starring
Alicia Silverstone,
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook (born October 4, 1979) is an American actress and model. She has starred in the films '' The Baby-Sitters Club'' (1995), '' She's All That'' (1999), and '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), and in the television series '' Into ...
,
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
and
John Cleese. ''Scorched'' follows the story of several disgruntled bank employees who all try to rob the same bank on the same night without knowing that others are doing exactly the same thing.
The film had a poor financial performance at the
box office. From the initial budget of
US $
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
7 million, ''Scorched'' earned back $8,000 at the end of its theatrical run. It was pulled from its theatrical run after a sole weekend in the theaters where it managed to earn $666 per theater.
Plot
Sheila Rilo is a bank teller at Desert Savings Bank in a small desert town. Her boyfriend is Rick Becker, the bank manager who was informed by his superiors that he would be fired if the bank's
ATMs were to be robbed just one more time. Sheila and Rick have spent several years in an on-again off-again relationship, in which he uses her between other flings. After Sheila pays for most of Rick's education, he leaves her for his tutor. Sheila decides to exact revenge on Rick by robbing the bank and getting him fired.
On the same night, Stuart and Jason, two other tellers from the same bank, have also decided to rob the bank. Stuart's plan is to steal $250,000 from the bank and bet the entire amount on one game of
roulette in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. Stuart, who is desperate for excitement in his life, is following the suggestion of his friend Max, even though the intelligent Stuart usually talks Max out of his hare-brained
get-rich-quick scheme
A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of return for a small investment. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 20th century.
Most schemes create an impression that part ...
s.
Jason is a nature lover who lives with an orphaned duck. He was promoted to assistant bank manager, a position with much more responsibility but only a $0.55 per hour raise. He feels the bank owes him for years of loyal and underpaid service and he decides to get even by robbing the safety deposit box of a mean-spirited local millionaire, Charles Merchant. Merchant, who got rich from making infomercials and selling videotapes on how to get rich quickly on the real estate market, is the person that shot Jason's duck's mother, therefore making easier Jason's decision to rob Merchant's safety deposit box.
Jason is not the only one with a plan for revenge against the local tycoon. A disgruntled clothing store employee, Shmally, takes her revenge against Merchant the same night by having her friend/roommate Carter help her throw eggs at Merchant's home. Carter, with the help of Shmally, is in the process of cleaning himself up for a job interview at Desert Savings Bank. He is hired and arrives at the bank on Monday morning for his first day, only to be turned away by Rick.
Ultimately, all three bank employees are successful in their individual robberies, with each being completely unaware of the other's plans. After Rick is informed of his firing, he approaches each of them to offer them the job as bank manager. One by one they quit, leaving Rick to offer employment to Carter as he leaves the bank.
In an epilogue, we learn that Carter worked his way up to the assistant manager position at the bank, Max and Stu moved to Las Vegas, Jason traveled south and was never seen again, and Sheila enrolled at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
.
Cast and characters
*
Marcus Thomas as Carter Doleman, Shmally's roommate, bank's newest employee
*
Alicia Silverstone as Sheila Rilo,
bank teller
A bank teller (often abbreviated to simply teller) is an employee of a bank whose responsibilities include the handling of customer cash and negotiable instruments. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative. ...
, Rick's girlfriend
*
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook (born October 4, 1979) is an American actress and model. She has starred in the films '' The Baby-Sitters Club'' (1995), '' She's All That'' (1999), and '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), and in the television series '' Into ...
as Shmally, clothing store employee, Carter's roommate
*
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
as Jason "Woods" Valley, assistant manager and nature lover
*
John Cleese as Charles Merchant, local business man and millionaire, creator of infomercials
*
Paulo Costanzo
Paulo Costanzo (born September 21, 1978) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax) in the TV series '' Animorphs'', the roles of Rubin Carver in the comedy film ''Road Trip'', Alexander Cabot in '' Josie a ...
as Stuart "Stu" Stein,
bank teller
A bank teller (often abbreviated to simply teller) is an employee of a bank whose responsibilities include the handling of customer cash and negotiable instruments. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative. ...
, Max's friend, desperate for excitement in life
*
David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He played Mr. Universe in '' Serenity'', Charlie Eppes in the CBS drama series ''Numb3rs'', and starred in the '' Harold & Kumar'' and ''The Santa Clause'' film franchises.
...
as Max, Stu's friend, full of get-rich-quick schemes
*
Joshua Leonard
Joshua Granville Leonard (born June 17, 1975) is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his role in ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999). He has since starred in films such as '' Madhouse'' (2004), '' The Shaggy Dog'' (2006), '' Higher G ...
as Rick Becker, bank manager, Sheila's boyfriend
*
Ivan Sergei as Mark, a fireman, Sheila's new love interest
* Wayne Morse as Gavin, Mark's fellow fireman
*
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank Kings ...
as Bank Employer
Reception
Critical response
The film received generally negative reviews from film critics. Review aggregator
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 ...
gives it a score 17% based on reviews from 6 critics.
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the film one star out of five and called ''Scorched'' "a bigger and more disagreeable waste of time than rolling an enormous ball of solid ordure up a steep hill" while Angus Wolfe Murray of ''Eye for Film'', who awarded the film the same 1 star-rating, called it an "unmitigated disaster" and concluded that "a car wreck has more style". Rich Cline of ShadowsontheWall.com admits that ''Scorched'' has a "superb cast" who are "gifted performers" but that the film is still a "leaden mess", that it's "completely pointless" and concludes that "while the film is watchable, not a single plot thread comes to life". Critic Matthew Leyland of online service
BBCi gave the film two stars out of five, calling it a "tepid revenge
farce" with an "undercooked plot" and observing that "attempts at zany humour turn pear-shaped". Sean Axmaker of the ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States.
The newspaper was f ...
'' called the film "amusing but tepid", called the script "lazy" and ultimately concluded that, with only "vaguely likable characters", ''Scorched'' is "aggressively amiable and utterly unmemorable".
Of the rare favourable reviews was the one by Duane Byrge of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' in which he called the storyline a "raucously satisfying triumph of good over evil" and "a truckload of laughs" while concluding that "this wonderfully wayward comedy should make off with a ton of dollars, euros and other comic currency".
Box office
''Scorched'' was filmed in six weeks, ending principal photography on June 23, 2001 but was not released in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
until July 25, 2003. The film suffered major financial losses during its theatrical run, earning only $8,000 (approximately 0.1%) from a production budget of $7 million. Domestically, the film was only in release for three days starting on August 3, 2003 and it played in only twelve theaters averaging gross earnings of $666 per theater.
The earnings for the opening weekend, which turned out to be the film's last weekend as well, ranked the film as the 380th film of 2003 by domestic gross earnings.
2003 Yearly Box Office Results
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ...
. Accessed December 11, 2008.
References
External links
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*
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, id=esto_es_un_robo, title=Scorched
2003 films
2003 comedy films
2003 independent films
2000s crime comedy films
2000s heist films
American crime comedy films
American heist films
American independent films
Films scored by John Frizzell (composer)
2000s English-language films
2000s American films