As a title, "The Big Caper" sounds quite jolly. However, the movie is not a comedy. Rather it is a crime movie of the pulpier variety, about a gang planning a major bank heist. Things go wrong during the preparation stage and by the time the actual date arrives, various gang members are at each other's throats, spurred on by emotions such as distrust, anger and revenge. Matters aren't helped along by the fact that several gang members are twisted weirdos.
Now "The Big Caper" is not a masterpiece. Many of the plot developments can be spotted from far away, let's say from the planet Mars. Moreover, the movie doesn't believe in subtlety. One of the sequences, for instance, involves a degenerate, alcoholic pyromaniac / explosives expert trying to bring down a school building. The school is full of adorable children singing "America the beautiful"... The ending feels rushed, as if the writers had grown tired of their project.
On the other hand the movie can be watched with pleasure by viewers willing to take a walk on the pulpier side of the street. The movie also features an interesting inversion of the usual tropes about formerly honest citizens succumbing to the lure of gold. Here the opposite happens, since two of the main characters - both of them louche grifters - begin to long for a life of law-abiding probity. So it's not greed that seduces them away from the gang, it's a hankering for honest work, decent neighbors and innocent family get-togethers.
On a final note : "The Big Caper" features the ugliest man's shirt since the invention of cinema. Sensitive viewers may want to arm themselves with a flask of brandy or a dose of smelling salts.
Now "The Big Caper" is not a masterpiece. Many of the plot developments can be spotted from far away, let's say from the planet Mars. Moreover, the movie doesn't believe in subtlety. One of the sequences, for instance, involves a degenerate, alcoholic pyromaniac / explosives expert trying to bring down a school building. The school is full of adorable children singing "America the beautiful"... The ending feels rushed, as if the writers had grown tired of their project.
On the other hand the movie can be watched with pleasure by viewers willing to take a walk on the pulpier side of the street. The movie also features an interesting inversion of the usual tropes about formerly honest citizens succumbing to the lure of gold. Here the opposite happens, since two of the main characters - both of them louche grifters - begin to long for a life of law-abiding probity. So it's not greed that seduces them away from the gang, it's a hankering for honest work, decent neighbors and innocent family get-togethers.
On a final note : "The Big Caper" features the ugliest man's shirt since the invention of cinema. Sensitive viewers may want to arm themselves with a flask of brandy or a dose of smelling salts.