What does it take to gather the perfect heist team? Judging from the movies we’ve all watched countless times before, I think that we have a pretty good idea of what it takes. Pulling from those same flicks and flipping them on their head for comedic effect, The Heist (2017), directed by Luke Harris, is a four minute short film with slick style, visual flair, and high-octane pacing.
Riffing off of the Ocean 11‘s and Guy Ritchie’s of the world, The Heist finds two handsomely good looking guys, Leo (Shaw Jones) and Pete (Shawn Parsons), pitching an aging mobster, Pauly (Steven Wishnoff) – who is relaxing in a bathrobe, no less, on their plan for the perfect heist, by a lavish swimming pool. . . in what sounds more like a producer’s pitch meeting. Amplifying the stakes of even the most outlandish of the genre (and that is saying something), the pair then start listing their team for this hesitant moneyman (of course, done in a brisk montage style) – from the talented getaway driver and explosive’s expert with a self referential nickname, to the black guy with a cockney accent and “the bad ass who just got his ass kicked but still has the guts to say, ‘Is that the best you got?’”. . . I think you get where they’re going with this gag-filled extravaganza.
Literally giving fans of the genre the ability to point to the movies they are riffing off of – for instance, the cockney reference above is a clear jab at Don Cheadle’s iffy accent in the Ocean’s franchise, Harris, through the writing of Dafna Garber and Kevin Tenglin, pushes the meta to the breaking point right up till the very end. . . the final scene a full circle moment that brings self-parody to the very table that these three sit at.
Capturing everything right down to the tiniest of minutiae, in just four short minutes, expect Harris to point out the ridiculous plot points, the most ludicrous of characters, those silly action moments, that last chance at redemption, and everything in between (including a few unexpected surprises). Spoofing the genre with a sawed-off shotgun (which just seems so fitting), The Heist is a dream scenario for fans of these types of things. So, join the gang of likeable misfits and be part of this heist, it won’t rob you of your time.
A quick Google or Youtube search will easily bring you to this short film