Matthew Broderick plays Adam, a 23 year old who abandons academic pursuits in favor of a burglary proposed to him by an ex-professor. The job is to steal six plasmids and a notebook from a lab. Adam brings onto the job his grandfather Jessie (Sean Connery), a career criminal. Adams' father Vito (Dustin Hoffman) has strong misgivings about this proposed heist, seeing that he's forsaken his own criminal past and gone straight for the last 20 years or so. How soon will Vito be lured by the prospect of a caper and a hefty payday?
While there is some highly questionable casting here (Connery, Hoffman, and Broderick aren't the most convincing family you'll ever see, and you've also got Rosana DeSoto from "La Bamba" and "Stand and Deliver" playing Vitos' Jewish wife), the story isn't as bad as some reviews would have you believe. It's not a great one (Vincent Patrick scripted, from his own novel), but it entertains well enough. This viewer would also disagree that the Cy Coleman score is absolutely terrible - it's not particularly great itself, but it was rarely bad enough to be truly distracting. The climactic caper is reasonably enjoyable, if not that tense or lively; it takes its sweet time playing out.
The main reason to watch are three charismatic performances by three capable actors. Connery, in particular, is wonderful as a cheerful old rascal. The three of them are well supported by DeSoto, Janet Carroll, Bill McCutcheon, and Deborah Rush, and in small roles there's other familiar faces like Victoria Jackson, Luis Guzman, James Tolkan, Rex Everhart, Marilyn Sokol, Wendell Pierce, Tony DiBenedetto, and BD Wong.
There are certainly more potent teamings of Connery and filmmaker Sidney Lumet out there - "The Hill", "The Anderson Tapes", "The Offense". This is definitely a lesser one. But that doesn't mean that it isn't at least watchable for the duration.
Seven out of 10.
While there is some highly questionable casting here (Connery, Hoffman, and Broderick aren't the most convincing family you'll ever see, and you've also got Rosana DeSoto from "La Bamba" and "Stand and Deliver" playing Vitos' Jewish wife), the story isn't as bad as some reviews would have you believe. It's not a great one (Vincent Patrick scripted, from his own novel), but it entertains well enough. This viewer would also disagree that the Cy Coleman score is absolutely terrible - it's not particularly great itself, but it was rarely bad enough to be truly distracting. The climactic caper is reasonably enjoyable, if not that tense or lively; it takes its sweet time playing out.
The main reason to watch are three charismatic performances by three capable actors. Connery, in particular, is wonderful as a cheerful old rascal. The three of them are well supported by DeSoto, Janet Carroll, Bill McCutcheon, and Deborah Rush, and in small roles there's other familiar faces like Victoria Jackson, Luis Guzman, James Tolkan, Rex Everhart, Marilyn Sokol, Wendell Pierce, Tony DiBenedetto, and BD Wong.
There are certainly more potent teamings of Connery and filmmaker Sidney Lumet out there - "The Hill", "The Anderson Tapes", "The Offense". This is definitely a lesser one. But that doesn't mean that it isn't at least watchable for the duration.
Seven out of 10.