Masterminds (2016)
Directed by Jared Hess
A night guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history.
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"Masterminds" sort of tells the story of a famous heist involving not very bright thieves, the 1997 Loomis Fargo job.
…stolen in Charlotte, NC in October 1997—gets the pseudo-Coen-brothers, robbery-by-dummies treatment in Jared Hess’ Masterminds.
Masterminds takes real life events -- the legendary 1997 Loomis Fargo cash heist -- and filters them (as well as the people who lived them) through the perpetually bizarre lens that characterizes most Jared Hess films.
Working to the advantage of Hess and his screenwriting trio (Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer, with “SNL” vet Emily Spivey), the weirdest aspects of this story simply couldn’t be invented, putting “Masterminds” in that same credibility-straining zone as Jim Carrey con-man comedy “I Love You Philip Morris” and the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” (which, faux “true story” claims aside, proved to be totally fabricated after all).
Working as a security guard for North Carolina money-transporting company Loomis Fargo, he's getting ready to marry his fiancée Jandice (Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live) when a ex-colleague finally sparks his brush with crime.
The influence of the Coen brothers, and of the likes of Raising Arizona and Fargo, looms large — and understandably can’t be matched.
Con títulos memorables en las más diversas cinematografías, particularmente en países donde la picaresca forma parte del código genético de sus habitantes, comenzando por España e Italia, el subgénero puede abordarse desde ópticas que partan de una cierta seriedad, pero que acaben llevando a la risa a través del contraste entre intenciones y resultados, y ahí Atraco a las tres (José María Forqué) puede ser el mejor ejemplo, o también desde metodologías que exageren casi a cada momento las situaciones, superpoblando lo que ya tiene de farsa con elementos cómicos como el slapstick, la burla y la parodia.
That’s not terribly surprising: it’s directed by Jared Hess, who was responsible for “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre,” both of them pictures that treated their characters with something akin to contempt.
Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess matches his deep affection for harmless whirligig eccentrics with a derivative true-crime comic escapade in Masterminds, the uneven story of a gang who couldn't think straight who nonetheless made off with $US17 million via a robbery at a North Carolina armoured car facility in the late 1990s.
" The Jerk ," " Napoleon Dynamite ," " Dumb and Dumber ," "Anchorman" and other films all worked this vein.
You know director Jared Hess from such quirkiness as Napoleon Dynamite and Don Verdean, which he wrote alongside his wife Jerusha.
Set in the late 1990s, Hess takes us to a world of pagers and pay phones with the same awkward quirkiness he used for 2004’s breakout “Napoleon Dynamite.”
Director Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”) has always gone for geeks and oddballs, but this film mostly punches down at characters for being poor, unfashionable and stupid.
That’s not terribly surprising: it’s directed by Jared Hess, who was responsible for “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre,” both of them pictures that treated their characters with something akin to contempt.
But while there are enough nods to Hess’ style to make the director’s presence felt, “Masterminds” feels crafted more towards showcasing the talents of its celebrity cast, similar to Hess’ Jack Black vehicle “Nacho Libre.”
As a filmmaker, Jared Hess ( Napoleon Dynamite , Nacho Libre ) has always taken special delight in turning his actors into mortifying cartoon dorks.
Another tale from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) involving trailer-park-grade oddballs wearing weird clothes, sporting weirder haircuts, and speaking in all sorts of crazy-weird ways, this long-delayed film—originally intended for a summer 2015 release before Relativity Media spiraled into financial crisis—ignores character detail and zips past seemingly crucial plot points with almost spastic speed.
Not even a batch of SNL alums could save this insufferable comedy from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) and writers Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey.
“Masterminds” is a small, very strange film, and definitely doesn’t enter the upper echelons of director Jared Hess’ oeuvre, which includes the wacky comedy classics “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre,” or even the best work of its stars.
"Masterminds" was written by Chris Bowman , Hubbell Palmer and Emily Spivey and directed by "Napoleon Dynamite" and " Gentlemen Broncos " filmmaker Jared Hess , American cinema's second most distinguished practitioner of smart-stupid comedy after the Coens.
Hess redressed the omission in his second film, “ Nacho Libre ,” a comedy about a priest and a nun, and then raised his ideas, and his ideals, to a cosmic dimension in “ Gentlemen Broncos .”
I’m not sure, but this may be Hess’s last shot at a Hollywood career, given that his follow-ups to “Napoleon Dynamite” have ranged from the inconsequential (“Nacho Libre,” 2006) to the unwatchable (“Gentlemen Broncos,” 2009).
Ghantt’s naïveté is a gift to Galifianakis; the role is like the innocent fools Hess innovated in his previous films Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, and Gentlemen Broncos.
And outside of one scene in which main character David Ghantt’s ( Zach Galifianakis ) fiancée, Jandice (Kate McKinnon), explains how they met, it has barely any of the religious concerns that have marked some of his work (Nacho Libre, Gentlemen Broncos, Don Verdean) since his 2004 debut.
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Part of the problem is that the hairy comedic actor, whose manic mannerisms made him effective in The Hangover installments, is not a leading man.
In short, he's the sort of character you get when the director of "Napoleon Dynamite" teams up with the weirdest guy in "The Hangover."
Similar to his roles in The Hangover, Due Date, and The Campaign, Galifianakis’ character conflates flamboyance with inanity and weakness.
Similar to his roles in The Hangover, Due Date, and The Campaign, Galifianakis’ character conflates flamboyance with inanity and weakness.
"Masterminds" won't rank as one of history's big-budget botches such as "Ishtar" and "Heaven's Gate," but the colossal waste of class-A comedy talent should qualify as a felony in Tinseltown.
Fans of McKinnon’s work in last summer’s “Ghostbusters” reboot will be especially pleased to see more of the actress' unique deadpan style, and the “amateur criminals in over their heads” theme will feel familiar to anyone who enjoyed Wilson’s first role in Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket.”
Wilson’s presence here, planning an ill-fated heist, creates unflattering echoes of Bottle Rocket —just the latest ammo to use against a director who’s been labeled a lowbrow Wes Anderson imitator from symmetrical composition one.
His talents shine best when he plays relatively mellow guys with loose screws (Birdman, Up In the Air) or as a deadpan humorist on Between Two Ferns.
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But at least it's not a depressingly cynical slog like Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain."
His talents shine best when he plays relatively mellow guys with loose screws (Birdman, Up In the Air) or as a deadpan humorist on Between Two Ferns.