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THE HIDEOUT — It’s hard to put your finger on what makes a heist movie so fantastic, but they’re hard not to like. Even the mediocre ones tend to entertain and the great ones stick with us and often go down in cinema history as classics.
This week will host the release of “Ocean’s 8,” the spinoff movie from the Ocean’s franchise. The film boasts an impressive cast with the likes of Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway, to name a few.
Stay tuned to KSL.com for our review of "Ocean's 8" on Thursday and an "Ocean's 8" parents content guide on Friday. In the meantime, join the KSL Movie Club as we revisit three of the best heist movies ever made.
Here at KSL.com, we thought the release of “Ocean’s 8” was the perfect excuse to restart our KSL Movie Club and do it with some style focusing on our favorite heist movies.
Jacob's pick: “The Sting” (1973)
“The Sting” is the “Godfather” of heist movies, and it has a trophy case filled with seven Academy Awards to prove it. It’s the movie that asks, “How much money could you steal if you spent, like, hundreds of thousands to set up your grift first?”
OK, so “The Sting” is less about practicality and more about style. But to be honest, most heist movies are style over substance. From the slick chemistry between the classic duo of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, to the gritty Depression-era Chicago setting, to the quirky ragtime soundtrack, “The Sting” has all the style you could ask for, and then some.
Throughout “The Sting,” Redford and Newman’s characters know something the other characters in the movie — and the viewers of the film — don’t. Both of the legendary actors play their parts with the coy, subtle swagger they were known for their entire careers.
In the film’s climactic final scene, there are more twists and double-crosses than an entire season of “Game Of Thrones.” This is the heist movie to which all other heist movies owe everything.
John's pick: “Inception” (2010)
For anyone who knows me very well or has read my articles, this pick comes as no surprise. People will often ask me what my favorite movie of all time is and I always say, “It’s hard for me to pick just one, but ‘Inception’ is way up there.”
In my opinion, Christopher Nolan’s mind-heist thriller is one of the most original, well-crafted, clever and enjoyable films ever made. The movie is layered, in more ways than one, and is basically a mind crime in and of itself.
I have seen this movie dozens of times and I’m looking forward to watching it again. I knew this movie was going to be great, so I went to a midnight screening when it opened. To this day I have never had a cinematic experience like that before. I was wide-eyed and fixated for the entire runtime and felt what they mean by “movie magic.”
I am a sucker for heist movies and I love the other two entries on this list, but nothing holds a candle to “Inception” for me.
Curt's pick: “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001)
I love a good heist movie, and that is why it was hard to pick my favorite one. After much debate and going back and forth I finally decided on “Ocean’s Eleven.” Plus, the fact John picked “Inception” before me made this decision a tad easier.
Just in case you are one of the few people in the world that has not seen one of the most entertaining movies of all-time, “Ocean’s Eleven” is a remake of a 1960s film about 11 guys that work together to rob a casino in Las Vegas, which is pretty much impossible to do. The movie was cast perfectly and they all meshed well on screen. The director, Steven Soderbergh, was able to pull a heist on the audience itself with plot twists and throws in turns that gel together perfectly at the end.
This movie was so awesome it spawned two more sequels, one of which was good, and now a spinoff with a female cast. Like I said, there are tons of good heist movies out there but “Ocean’s Eleven” might be the best of them.
What's your favorite heist movie? Vote in the poll below or tell us in the comments! If you can't see the poll below, click here to vote.
Contributing: Curtis Linnell, Jacob Klopfenstein
