We all have movie genre soft spots. Some people will watch any sappy Christmas movie they can get their hands on – I will watch pretty much any heist movie that the best streaming services care to show me.
And this is especially dangerous to my free time right now, because Netflix has three of my all-time favorites, and I basically can’t resist any of them as soon as I see those names pop up on the menu.
There are two fun heist capers and one more dramatic crime epic, so there’s something for every mood. Well, as long as your moods all desire charismatic criminals, as mine do. I’d happily rate these all among the best Netflix movies, though I don’t get to just fill that list with all my favorites, alas.
1. Logan Lucky
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Runtime: 119 minutes
Main cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keogh, Daniel Craig
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Age rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Steven Soderbergh is the king of the fun, breezy heist caper, and Logan Lucky is the perfect example. Down-on-his-luck Jimmy (Tatum) is let go from his construction job due to an old injury, while his ex-wife and daughter make plans to move further away from him – so he hatches a plan to steal the cash from the stadium of a big NASCAR race, using his knowledge from working construction around the stadium, to give himself and his family a more stable life.
He pulls in his brother Clyde (played with deadpan perfection by Driver) and seemingly skeptical sister Mellie (Keogh), but they’ll have to start by breaking explosives expert Joe Bang (Craig, who is completely off the leash, in the best way) out of prison.
What I love is how you end up with a nesting doll of plans, with an elaborate prison break-out scheme feeding into a heist that will literally suck the cash right out of the stadium, feeding into Jimmy’s plan to show he can be a solid father.
Soderbergh is the master of heist filmmaking, always hiding part of what’s going on to ramp up tension and to leave you feeling both in on the plot and wondering what’s going on just like the police coming in to clear up the mess – but always with just enough hints of what’s happening so that it all falls together perfectly in your mind in the end.
But the movie’s about more than just the crime – it’s so much fun to hang out with these characters. Clyde’s sardonic earnestness is so incredibly charming, Joe Bang’s genius brain and redneck attitude make him the focus of every scene he’s in, Mellie’s subtly boiling fury at life is perfectly played against the others, and Jimmy is just so easy to root for thanks to Tatum’s guileless performance.
And it’s full of really good gags (including one about how long The Winds of Winter is taking, which only get funnier with every year…) and amazing bit-part characters played by the likes of Hilary Swank, Sebastian Stan and Seth MacFarlane.
2. Heat
Runtime: 170 minutes
Main cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Amy Brenneman, Diane Venora
Director: Michael Mann
Age rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
To understand the relationship my household has to Heat, I think it’s important to understand that I once received a text from my partner while I was on a trip that said “I just watched Heat again, and then I saw that our iTunes version has a director’s commentary, so I watched Heat a second time immediately after.”
There is no end to my love of the knotty character dynamics of Heat. Yes, it is a cops-and-robbers film, which features no fewer than three separate heists, and one of the most epic shoot-outs in movie history. But it’s mainly about the relationships between people: what strange shapes they take, and how someone you just met can provide more comfort than someone you’ve known for years… or not. And that gives it infinite rewatchability for me.
Vincent Hanna (Pacino) is the head of a police task force assigned to investigate an armored car heist in Los Angeles by a devastating new criminal crew. Neil McCauley (De Niro) is the head of the crew, working to take a few more big scores before blowing town.
The core of the movie is the relationship between the two men, who almost never share the screen, outside of one famous diner scene (and even during that scene) and the finale. But they understand each other, they can get to know each other just through their cat-and-mouse game, and they like each other.
Heat is a “we’re the same, you and I” movie, except it doesn’t need to be said out loud. When McCauley and Hanna meet, their conversation is quietly about how they’re the same, but it’s also about how different they are, and whether they should be learning anything from each other. Maybe they should, maybe not; by the end, you have to wonder if all they have to learn from each other is fresh, new self-destructive tendencies. But you also know that they find solace in their similarities that they’re not getting from other parts of their lives.
Hanna is struggling with the decline of his third marriage and his inability to be a stable presence in a family life because he’s all-consumed by his police work. McCauley isn’t attempting to live any kind of life at all, in case he needs to run at any time – but he can’t help but be pulled towards something more comforting.
His protective relationship with right-hand man Chris (Kilmer) and Chris’ wife Charlene (Judd) is this fascinating attempt at supportiveness from a guy who only knows how to operate with force and coercion. His slip into a real relationship with Eady (Brenneman) is his chance at something like redemption – if only he could take it.
I’ve talked for ages, and I haven’t even mentioned half the sub-plots – Heat really is a crime action epic, and is one of my favorite movies of all time.
3. Ocean’s Eleven
Runtime: 116 minutes
Main cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia (I’m not doing the rest of the 11)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Age rating: PS-13
Rotten Tomatoes score: 83%
Soderbergh’s back – I did say he’s the master of this stuff – with another fun heist movie I can watch over and over. Not because it has the depth of something like Heat, but because it just goes down so smoothly.
Serial thief Danny Ocean (Clooney) gets out of prison, and immediately starts plotting his most ambitious heist yet: robbing three Las Vegas casinos at once, thanks to their shared vault (a piece of obvious nonsense if you’ve ever been to the Strip, but who cares). Much to the chagrin of partner-in-literal-crime Rusty (Pitt), it’s also a chance to win back Ocean’s ex-wife, Tess (Roberts).
Like Logan Lucky, it has plans within plans that the movie uses to keep you on your toes, and once again uses hints from early in the movie to deliver satisfying twists towards the end.
This movie is pure liquid charm, partly because of the way it doesn’t take itself or its characters too seriously. It presents us with the coolest people in the world, then gently undermines them at every opportunity, and surrounds them with chaotic characters they can barely keep on track.
It’s a blast from start to finish. I remember it was one of the first DVDs I ever bought, and I watched it so many times. Now it’s even easier to do that on streaming, heaven help me.
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