Bandits

Two middle-aged men go on a bank-robbing spree with the aid of a beautiful, bored housewife. But wait: They both fall in love with her! In spite of its tried and true (i.e. trite and hackneyed) storyline, Bandits manages to be deeply funny for about half an hour. Then it gets really into being trite and hackneyed for a while, then goes back for the kind of explosive entertainment that we in America love so much. Bruce Willis is charming in a most unusual role: He plays a middle-aged man who's still thought of as sexy. A Hollywood first! Billy Bob Thornton hams it up a bit too much as Willis's hypochondriac partner in crime, and Cate Blanchett is gorgeous, if a bit bland, as their mutual girlfriend. A subplot involving relative newcomer Troy Garrity as the getaway car driver livens things up, and the ending is not to be missed. The middle is, but that's hard to manage, so you may just have to sit through the whole thing.