“After the Sunset” joins the increasingly long list of unremarkable heist movies starring big name actors. Not necessarily bad, just mildly entertaining and completely forgettable after the credits roll. These films are sure to make a quick buck for a few weeks before drowning in the continuing flood of more Hollywood heist movies. Earlier this year it was “The Big Bounce,” and now this.
Directed by Brett Ratner, whose career is devoted to moderate success with moderate skill (“Rush Hour,” “Red Dragon”), the film competently portrays the “retirement” of two notable
jewel thieves living the good life on a tropical island. Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek do a decent job with their roles as the jewel thieves and lovers Max and Lola, who quit the crime business after stealing two of the precious Napoleon diamonds.
Living on a tropical “paradise,” their life is disrupted when their nemesis, an FBI officer named Stan (Woody Harrelson) watches them as a “diamond cruise” comes to their island carrying the last of the Napoleon diamonds. The plot thickens as a local businessman (Don Cheadle) tempts Max into stealing the diamond, while Lola demands that they stay retired.
For all intents and purposes, this film is truly Pierce Brosnan’s mid-life crisis. Having recently left Bond films for good – and also aged into his fifties – the film does its best to make him seem as young and vibrant as he wants to be.
Unfortunately, the man is not young and vibrant. His acting is sufficient, but not spectacular, and there are not many signs of a promising future for him now that he left Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Rather, he has put himself into an area where he appears youthful: a beautiful girlfriend, as the camera constantly flaunts Hayek’s natural assets without subtlety, a healthy body in Brosnan’s shirtless body, and living in ease with both
lounging in paradise. Unfortunately, the gray hair remains, and Brosnan looks more like a desperate man clinging to his heyday as opposed to a comfortable actor.
Woody Harrelson does his best as the bumbling antagonist, sharing some key laughs in his usual, goofy manner. But without a consistently uncomfortable running gag of mistaken sexuality between Max and Stan, there is not much to
the comedy. A few good punchlines are thrown, but nothing approaching noteworthy except for a flippant comment about sweatshops. The movie contains more formula than a Similac bottle and can never escape its own genre.
But, as most heist movies go, it contains enough entertainment to fill an hour and a half. The thrills exist, the build up lasts, and the movie does look good. The ending is also completely half-baked and asinine.
But after the sun goes down on this movie, it will likely remain within the darkness of memory, forgotten as just another diamond heist movie starring that one guy.
Jason Bolte can be reached at [email protected].
