The Score ***
Directed by Frank Oz
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Marlon Brando, Edward Norton and Angela Bassett
Rated R (language, violence, adult situations)

You can usually ‘bank’ on a heist movie to be entertaining. Weak pun, I know. But, I needed a way to start off this review, and couldn’t think of a way to start it off with a ‘bang’.

Still here? Good.

The Score is another good summertime movie. It doesn’t try to bend genres around; it doesn’t try to be something that it’s not. It’s a movie about a heist. Not a heist with aliens, not a heist with talking animals, not a heist with a Will Smith song about it, just a heist, plain and simple. Knowing that, you know what to expect, and that’s what makes it good.

One of the fun things about heist movies is trying to see what will go wrong. I’m not spoiling anything here – things falling apart is one of the staples of the genre. It’s seeing how and when and why the plan falls apart that keeps us going to these movies.

That being said, here’s a rough breakdown of the plot: Nicky (DeNiro) has been in the business for 25 years, and is thinking that it’s time to ‘retire’, live with Diane (Bassett), and run his jazz club full-time. Max (Brando) offers him (you know what’s coming) One. Last. Score. A score that will pay Nicky $4 million. Now, for something this big, it’s gotta be tough, and an insider will be needed. Enter Jack (Norton), who as ‘Brian’, a developmentally disabled part-time janitor, has unrestricted access to the Montreal Customs House where the heist will go down. From here we connect the dots, try and out-guess the crooks, try and figure out what will go wrong, make mistakes, watch the plot twists, and enjoy the show.

This is a strict genre piece. It’s not breaking any new ground here. It’s not Reservoir Dogs, and doesn’t try to be. There are some Tarantino-esque bits of dialogue (not so much with the sailor talk, but with the terse bits of detail), but, that’s to be expected. With the massive footprint that Quentin Tarantino made on American cinema, it’s nearly impossible not to steal from him, especially in movies about crime. The actors are all stock characters, but the actors who are playing them represent 3 generations of the best actors American cinema has ever seen.

Marlon Brando may be a big fat man now, but his acting is still top-notch. His eyes are incredibly expressive, and you can still see elements of the animal magnetism that made him a star. Robert DeNiro... well, he’s Robert DeNiro. He’s not charting new territory like he did in Raging Bull or Taxi Driver, but, it’s not like he’s going to turn in a bad performance. Besides, it’s not like he’s acting for Martin Scorsese. Edward Norton is so good that it’s scary. His portrayal of ‘Brian’ might be better than Kevin Spacey’s ‘Verbal Kint’ character in The Usual Suspects. Angela Bassett is there as a plot device – not quite a femme fatale, but as a motivation for DeNiro’s character. But, in order for a character like that to be able to hold her own against the likes of Brando, DeNiro and Norton, the actress would have to be good. And, she is.

And, what about Frank Oz? You know that you’ve seen that name somewhere before. Oz was ‘Miss Piggy’, ‘Fozzie Bear’, ‘Yoda’, ‘Grover’ – yup, a Muppeteer. He’s done acting without a Muppet, too (as the prison clerk who gives Jake Blues his belongings back when he leaves prison in The Blues Brothers, for example). Now, after having worked with George Lucas, John Landis and Jim Henson, Oz has clearly learned something about directing. He’s not a notable director, he’s not prolific, but he puts out good work, and he can handle actors who really know their stuff (Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss in What About Bob?, Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin in Bowfinger). This makes him almost ideal for directing a film like this. He’s not out to make a huge artistic statement; he’s here to make a good movie. And, he has.

Is The Score a classic? As a film, probably not. As a chance to see three truly gifted actors on screen at once (and the first time they share the screen together is electric), it just might be. Odds are, this will wind up being a sleeper hit, either in the theatres (like The Usual Suspects was), or on video (like The Shawshank Redemption was). Either way, you’re not going to go wrong with seeing this movie.