Life of Crime (2014)

Great Film overall

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Have you ever wondered what life was like for Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara (Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro) before the events of Quentin Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown'? Well now you can find out with this film titled 'Life of Crime', which is based on the Elmore Leonard book 'The Switch' from 1978. Leonard's 1992 novel 'Rum Punch' was adapted into 'Jackie Brown' in 1997. This is more or less a prequel to 'Jackie Brown' that focuses more the Ordell and Louis characters and their earlier crimes.Director Daniel Schechter must be a huge fan of both 'Jackie Brown' and the Coen Brother's film 'Fargo', because 'Life of Crime' is basically both of those films rolled into one with the same type of dark humor that made those films iconic in the first place. While 'Life of Crime' is nowhere near as good as 'Fargo' or 'Jackie Brown', it still has enough laughs, stylistic choices, A-list cast, and fun dialogue to stand on its own despite its low budget of only $12 million dollars.The film is set in the 1970s, complete with the outrageous outfits and hairdos true to that time period where we see a younger Ordell (Mos Def) and Louis (John Hawkes), trying to figure out how to make money on the next scheme. They hatch a plan to kidnap a wealthy socialite named Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston) who is married to a very wealthy business man named Frank (Tim Robbins). Ordell and Louis know that Frank is always out of town and is indeed seeing a younger woman on the side named Melaine Ralston (Isla Fisher, but formally played by Bridget Fonda in 'Jackie Brown').They do indeed kidnap Mickey, but to their dismay, Frank is perfectly fine with his wife being kidnapped and possibly killed, so he doesn't have to pay a ransom or any spousal support in the future. In fact, he already sent Mickey divorce papers. Now, Ordell and Louis must go to Plan B to collect money on their crime. Meanwhile, a man named Marshall Taylor (Will Forte), a married man who is trying to have an affair with Mickey gets caught up in this schemed and ends up being kidnapped as well, only adding to the chaos for Ordell and Louis to get out of. Some of same sadistic funny moments from 'Fargo' and 'Jackie Brown' are evident in 'Life of Crime', and Schechter does a great job of keeping it fresh while paying homage to the previous films.Even though there are some tense moments and some funny dialogue, the pacing is somewhat off here and doesn't flow as well as it should. But with the fun and entertaining cast here, you'll tend to turn the other cheek at these ailments. Aniston is excellent here, as is Robbins and Forte. Mos Def and John Hawkes are excellent as younger versions of these 'Jackie Brown' characters, which should make De Niro and Jackson proud.

The plan was simple, kidnap a rich suburban woman, while her husband and son are out of town. The husband is corrupt, so he will be more than willing to pay a ransom, in order to keep them quiet, and to get his wife back, right? This group of bumbling, life-long criminals thought they had it all figured out, except for one small problem, Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) isn't really interested in getting his wife back. This strange film, based on the novel, Switch by Elmore Leonard, takes place in the late 70's, and had critics raving, but after seeing it for myself, I'm left with one question, why? After the kidnapping takes place, the film moves at a snails pace, with criminals arguing, and phone calls back and fourth, nothing happens for the majority of the film. Jennifer Aniston stars and gives probably the worst performance I've ever seen her give. She is this spoiled, whiny, rich bitch, who just doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. It really got to the point where every time she spoke I cringed. On the other hand, Tim Robbins, who plays her husband, was hilarious, but not in the film nearly enough. One of my favorite young actors, Charlie Tahan, also has a role in the film, as their son. In the brief amount of screen time he has, we see a very troubled and confused kid, an angle that could have helped the story, but he too was hardly used. The majority of the film features Jennifer Aniston interacting with her kidnappers and trying to form a bond with the bumbling idiots. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a comedy or just a comedy of errors wrapped up in a dramatic theme, but either way it doesn't work. Most of the cast is absolutely horrible, the majority of the film is unbelievably slow, and the parts that aren't, just don't make a whole lot of sense. Life of Crime had quite a few side stories that could have been utilized to fill up the space and break up the monotony, but it was all left on the cutting room floor, leaving us with a film that could be used as a method of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

I learned of Elmore Leonard when I saw "Get Shorty", based on one of his novels. I later saw "Jackie Brown" and "52 Pick-Up", also based on his novels. And now there's "Life of Crime". It's another good one. During the first few minutes I thought that it was going to have the same plot as "Fargo", but it has a different story. The characters are the types that you can care about, even the unctuous ones, and the violence helps move the plot along as opposed to being gratuitous. No, it's not a masterpiece, but it's still an enjoyable movie. I especially liked what Jennifer Aniston's character does with the cigarette.I wonder what Elmore Leonard would have written had he lived longer.

There are black comedies that work and perfectly mix humor and tough material to end up with a well balanced drama. Life of Crime fails to ever hit the highs of either and scrapes the surface of the lows far too many times for a positive score.I feel like this film would have been better made in the 50's with the likes of Cary Grant or James Stewart in the lead. It just seemed like that type of comedy. Now in days we don't have those genres of films. It's a lot harder to accept the awkward twists and turns that this film makes when the tone doesn't fit our generation. The cast does what they can with the material, and in fact Aniston and Hawkes are pretty good. But the film never engaged me like the premise showed me it might. Will Forte and Tim Robbins come off as annoying and borderline phoning it in. Believe me I am a fan of the entire cast, but I don't think this was a good example of their acting talent.The whole plot doesn't exactly seem probable and it seems too goofy that the police can be this dumb. But I will say the films ending gave me a smile. I don't necessarily think this is a good movie at all, but if I had to watch it again I may think it's entertaining. Mark Boone Jr, who I also like as actor, was too awkward. I wanted to like this film but the tone is just too strange. I can tell that almost everyone was acting. It didn't really make me laugh and was just an overall strange film.+Aniston & Hawkes +Goofy ending -Odd tone -Better fit to be made decades ago -Strange characters that don't really fit in5.0/10