''Foolproof'' is a 2003

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

heist film The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery. One of the early defining heist films was ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almo ...

directed by

William Phillips William Phillips may refer to: Entertainment * William Phillips (editor) (1907–2002), American editor and co-founder of ''Partisan Review'' * William T. Phillips (1863–1937), American author * William Phillips (director), Canadian film-make ...

and starring

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenh ...

Kristin Booth Kristin Booth (born August 28, 1974) is a Canadian actress, born in Kitchener, Ontario. She graduated with Honours BFA from Ryerson Theatre School at Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1997. Career Kristin Booth grew up in Kinkora, near the S ...

Joris Jarsky Joris Jarsky (born December 3, 1974Joris Jarsky's bio
at www.northernstars.ca) is a Canadian stage, film, and ...

, and

James Allodi James Allodi (born February 26, 1967) is a Canadian actor, writer and director. Career James Allodi earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a Major in Film, from New York University. Since then, the writer, director, and actor has amassed an impres ...

Plot

Kevin, Sam and Rob are playing a game, known as "Foolproof", in which they create working plans to infiltrate and burgle various targets. They do not actually execute these heists, preferring to simply simulate them using necessary technical and physical abilities to carry out the tasks required for the heist. They adhere to some rules, such as using identical equipment and infrastructure as the target and using no firearms of any kind. All is fine until a famous criminal, Leo Gillette, breaks into Sam's apartment, steals the trio's plans for a jewelry warehouse heist and accomplishes it. He then

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

s the group into designing and executing a plan to steal $20 million in bonds from a bank. Since he has evidence incriminating them in the plans, they accept. Tension escalates within the group as Rob befriends Leo, while Kevin and Sam attempt to hinder his plans. They get the security codes to the safe and successfully switch the bonds. But the situation turns against them when Leo and Rob force Kevin into an elevator and crash it. When they go to retrieve the bonds, Sam shoots Rob, then Leo shoots Sam. With the three friends dead, Leo leaves with the bonds. It is later revealed that the friends had switched Leo's gun, giving him one loaded with blanks. Sam and Kevin get up and are greeted by Rob. When Leo gets back to his place, he sees a fire started by the gang to destroy evidence against them and planted evidence against Leo on the latest burglary. Leo is taken in custody by Detective Mason, while the friends drive away in their car.

Cast

as Kevin *

as Sam *

Joris Jarsky Joris Jarsky (born December 3, 1974Joris Jarsky's bio
at www.northernstars.ca) is a Canadian stage, film, and ...

as Rob *

David Hewlett David Ian Hewlett (born 18 April 1968) is a British-born Canadian actor, writer, and director known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay in the '' Stargate'' science-fiction franchise. He first gained fame for his roles as Grant Jansky in the Cana ...

as Lawrence Yeager *

as Detective Mason *

as Leo Gillette

Production

The film was filmed in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, and produced by

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...

Communications and Ego Film Arts and released theatrically on October 3, 2003, by Odeon Films in Canada and

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading i ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In Canada, it was released in 204 theatres, more than any other movie in the past. Under

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

rules stating the film producers must have a good script and firm distribution deals to get a grant of more than C$1,000,000, Telefilm granted ''Foolproof'' C$3,400,000. The entire budget was C$7,800,000.

Reception

Chris Parry of eFilmCritic gave it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote: "The practice of Canadian companies and funding bodies unquestioningly funding any and all projects that Atom Egoyan signs his name to must end immediately. Not that this, his first foray into action thrillers, is necessarily the worst film of all time. In fact, it's actually quite enjoyable in parts. But the money blown on it could have funded eighteen smaller films that actually had a shot at the box office - or one close to this one, only which had the one secret ingredient needed to make a profit... an actual star."

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in March 2004, including behind the scenes and special effects features, the theatrical trailer and outtakes. The package also contained a CD of the soundtrack, with songs performed by

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video gam ...

The Dandy Warhols The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1994 by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström. They were later joined by keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford ...

, Sam Roberts and

Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...

. In 2020, mobile phone company

Mint Mobile Mint Mobile, LLC is a mobile virtual network operator in the United States on the T-Mobile network. It requires the purchase of a physical SIM card or eSIM online and, except for a trial period, prepayment for at least three months of service. ...

, in which

had an ownership stake, made the film available to view for free, through a print from the ad-supported streaming service

FilmRise FilmRise is a New York City–based film and television studio and streaming network, which has become one of the largest independent providers of content to ad-supported streaming (AVOD) platforms, in addition to providing the largest free direc ...

, on the website mintmobileplus.com, purported as being part of a new streaming service launched by the company (a joke on the various streaming services, such as

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

, and

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

, launching or increasing in popularity that year, even having a logo stylized after the first service); the joke was that the film was the ''only'' program on the "service", being shown with various different thumbnails to make it appear as if it were different films.

References

External links

Official Website
* * * * {{Mojo title, foolproof 2003 films 2000s crime comedy films 2000s heist films 2003 independent films 2000s comedy thriller films Canadian independent films Canadian crime comedy films English-language Canadian films Films about friendship Films directed by William Phillips Films shot in Toronto Canadian heist films 2003 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian films