• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Jul 01, 2016 By Zach Hollwedel Web Exclusive

The cops-as-bad-guys movie trend is starting to wear thin. Perhaps if the latest additions to the genre were any good, overall expectations could be higher. But time and again, criminally inclined police – especially those with a penchant for robbing banks – somehow fail to make for entertaining cinema (Triple 9, anyone?). Even with reputable cast members such as Bruce Willis and Christopher Meloni, director Steven C. Miller’s heist flick, Marauders, fails to deliver any thrills.

Willis plays Hubert, an extravagantly wealthy Cincinnati bank president whose branches keep getting hit. He has intricate ties to the U.S. Army – his much younger brother died in an elaborately explained off-the-books operation, and members of connected platoons have started getting murdered. In the midst of it all, a bunch of Cincinnati detectives (all suspicious for one reason or other) and FBI officials (less suspicious but equally troubled) scrambling to put an end to the seemingly unstoppable string of robberies get deeply mired in pissing contests and bravado.

Miller’s direction leaves a lot to be desired. The helmer, whose not completely insignificant resume mainly includes low budget thrillers and horror, relies on flashiness and tricks, rather than sharp editing and dialogue to propel the story along. (It doesn’t help that the screenplay, by Chris Sivertson and rookie scribe Michael Cody, is woefully cluttered, but that could have been worked out in editing.) The bank robbers’ tactics are cool, but Miller’s staging often either dampens the action, or confuses it. There is just too much – too many characters, conniving, and convolution – to keep track of, and in the end, so little of it really seems to matter. For nearly an hour and 50 minutes, Marauders meanders to its final, merciful, conclusion.

www.lionsgate.com

Author rating: 4/10