A fast and funny little crime caper, 1974's BANK SHOT is certainly the only time in film history that George C. Scott and Robert Redford played the same character!
In 1972's hit "The Hot Rock", Redford played a clever bank robber after a huge jewel. Two years later and based on a second book by hilarious crime author Donald Westlake, Scott plays thief Walter Ballentine.
Sprung after 5 years by his shifty lawyer AG Karp (hilarious Sorrell Booke) and a big & ballsy prison break, Ballentine meets an eclectic team for a one-of-a-kind bank heist.
The Mission Bell Bank is temporarily housed in a mobile home, setting up Ballentine and his crazy bunch with a chance to steal the whole damn bank in the middle of the night.
A very young Bob Balaban (Close Encounters, Seinfeld) plays the young mastermind behind the heist, Joanna Cassidy is the sexy money behind the job and Clifton James riffs on his Southern Warden routine a couple years before becoming JW Pepper in OO7's "Live and Let Die".
Scott has rarely been funnier on film, with the biggest eyebrows and the quietest lisp on record, trying to focus on the heist between a million interruptions.
The last half of the film is the actual bank job and its funny, suspenseful and a blast.
At less than 90 minutes, this is a quick, fun diversion with a talented cast that gets a B.
(All you MAD Magazine fans will love that movie poster artwork from famed Mad artist, Jack Davis. No one filled those hilarious pages quite like Davis, with every square inch of the frame packed with action and fun. He delivers the same on this classic poster.)
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