Wildfire at the Movies: 'The Score'

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<title>Wildfire at the Movies: 'The Score' Patrick Duda wildfire wildfire@trv-psitech.com</title>
I had intended to watch <i>Planet of the Apes</i> this week, but it appears every other Ape on the planet wanted to as well. If there's one thing I hate more than dealing with poor movie seating, incessant eating and munching from everywhere, crying children and the poor picture and audio inherent in big theater shows, it's having to deal with an overcrowded theater. So, I decided to go to Plan B this time and view the new Robert De Niro film, <i>The Score</i>.<br>
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You know, there's just something about Robert De Niro movies that takes you back in time. Back when films were simple, plots were novel, and the idea of audience expectations in a film was not impossibly high. <br>
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In fact, you can see evidence of this in the way I can say that this is a "de Niro" movie and you'd know exactly what I was talking about, right away. Cops and robbers. Bank heists and shootouts. Crime Dramas. Good guys and Bad guys.<br>
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And so this is what <i>The Score</i> delivers, in spades. From the opening scene, to the closing credits, we see exactly what we wanted to see, what we expect to see. Robert de Niro opening safes, taking precious trinkets from those who didn't care enough to guard them better. But is this just getting a little old hat? Haven't we seen this before? <i>15 Minutes</i>, <i>Ronin</i>, <i>Heat</i>. Like the Jurassic Park franchise, you already know if this is something you want to see.<br>
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<i>The Score</i> is an excellently paced, classic "heist" film. You know the plot. A seasoned burgular, a genius technician, the shadowy fence that has a job that is just irresistable. And of course, the Score itself. Which in this case happens to be a royal sceptre, smuggled into Canada, nearly destroyed and impounded by Canadian authorities inside a Montreal customs building. Get inside the building, get the sceptre, sell for millions of dollars, retire rich and early.<br>
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You never feel yourself tiring overly of the plot, which builds and expands upon itself in a rather self-promoting way at times, as if wanting to cry out, "look at me! I'm clever!" It always reigns itself in just before it reaches the level of unbelievability. And when the film just starts to get uninteresting, a new twist develops. It's this kind of gentle corrective nudging that makes <i>The Score</i> both a good film and a rather unmemorable one at the same time. It does everything just right so that you never have to stop and think about what's going on. And yet it never makes you want to find out more, it never draws you into its web. The acting from the main characters is spot-on. The scenes and backdrops are authentic. It's just this utter seamlessness, combined with the unmelodramatic story that just makes this film so excellently smooth, although unenticing.<br>
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That is, except for the last 5 minutes, which contains one of the most useless, overly contrived and totally unnessecary surprise endings. I guess that's also part of the classic 'heist' formula.<br>
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Still, when you weigh the pros of this movie against the <i>cons</i>, you still come out on top. And for the summer season, that's saying a lot.<br>
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This movie is rated: Above average De Niro fare.<br><br>
<b>3</b> out of <b>5</b> stars<br>
<br>Special Awards:<br><br>
<img src="http://www.psitech.net/wildfire/safe.jpg"><br><br>
The locked safe award: For a movie that doesn't quite manage to get out of itself.<br><br><img src="http://www.psitech.net/images/sig_light.jpg"><br><font size=1><b>A hundred armed men could never steal in a day, what a single lawyer can steal in an hour.</b></font><br>