This is a light, happy-go-lucky movie set mostly on Nassau in the Bahamas. Meet Max and Lola, two diamond thieves who have retired to this idyllic location to spend their loot. The problem is Stan, a shambolic, rather wild-eyed FBI agent who has been outwitted by them for years. Not content with letting them enjoy their retirement, he shows up on their (beachfront) doorstep and proceeds to lure them into another big heist. Lola's content with watching sunsets, but Max still has the bug. Will he take the bait? Complications arise because of the involvement of two locals: beautiful cop Sophie and bad guy Henri Mooré.
This movie was enjoyable enough as summer television-like movie, but it doesn't go much deeper than that. There's not a lot of realism and art here. It was like a television movie.
I don't know what makes television movies different from regular movies. Is it the writing? The plot development? The acting? They have a certain cliché nature, don't they? At times this movie definitely had the cheesiness and artificiality of television shows like the Love Boat and To Catch a Thief. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of people love that kind of thing. It's not too demanding. And it's fun. People were laughing.
I suppose part of the problem for me was, well, Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson. I just couldn't see these two with Salma Hayek and Naomie Harris, respectively. Isn't the age difference a little too much? Is it wrong for me to point out that -- unlike the women they were with -- these two were (by 2004) no longer hot enough to generate heat in their love scenes?
I have seen these two actors deliver outstanding performances. They are strong enough to pull off a film like this in their sleep. However, I am just not interested in them enough to spend two hours watching their buddy antics (drinking, fishing, even in bed). They are not lovable fun characters to me, although I think that's the effect the director was trying to achieve. These scenes were too forced. I saw no buddy chemistry.
There was a good deal of wise-cracking (eg "I knew that when I married you. I knew that when I divorced you!") and slapstick (eg Stan gets hit in the head by a trombone.) The scuba scenes and the cruise ship scenes at the end were not believable, not that I think this movie's intended audience would care about that. It's all meant to be part of the fun.
The person I was with walked out of the film halfway through. I thought it was OK. I mean, I didn't hate it.
