AMERICAN HEIST (Sarik Andreasyan). 94 minutes. Opens Friday (July 24). Rating:N
Where to watch: Netflix
Inexplicably booked as a Special Presentation at TIFF last year, the terrible American Heist stars Hayden Christensen as a New Orleans mechanic whose attempts to go straight are undermined by his no-account brother (Adrien Brody), who ropes him into a dangerous bank robbery.
It’s the sort of familiar, warmed-over crime drama that would be a lot more fun if it had let Christensen’s character realize he’s actually trapped in a feeble rip-off of Michael Mann’s Heat. Instead, director Sarik Andreasyan does everything he can to distract us from reaching that conclusion, strapping cameras to his actors for extra visual flair and encouraging Brody to go bigger and bigger in every scene. (Nicolas Cage is probably kicking himself for missing out on this.)
Christensen makes a decent Everyman hero and even shows some warmth in his scenes with Jordana Brewster, but their subplot doesn’t amount to anything at all.
Neither does the movie.
