Ben Affleck directs and stars in this based-on-a-true-story drama of the rescue of American hostages in Iran that won the Oscar for best picture
Category: caper
John Cleese falls for ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ on Hulu and Paramount+
Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin costar in this zippy mix of caper comedy, sexy romantic comedy, and Pythonesque zaniness, one of the funniest films of the 1980s.
‘Inception’ – Christopher Nolan’s mind-heist on Netflix and HBO Max
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this caper film that heists dreams instead of treasure. It is surely the most cerebral action thriller to become a blockbuster. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy. Elliot Page, Marion Cotillard, and Michael Caine costar.
‘To Catch a Thief’ with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on Amazon Prime and Paramount+
Alfred Hitchcock’s frothiest entertainment delivers glamor and romance with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the French Riviera where a cat burglar is stealing the jewels of rich tourists.
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’ on Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount+
FBI agent Tom Hanks chases check forger Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg’s lively take on the true story of a con man who successfully passed himself off as a pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor, and passed over $4 million in forged checks, all before his 21st birthday.
John Huston’s ‘The Asphalt Jungle’ on Criterion Channel
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) is one of John Huston’s rare forays into the genre that would later be called film noir. His first, The Maltese Falcon (1941), helped set the template of the private eye noir. Ten years later, working from an adaptation of the caper novel by W.R. Burnett scripted in collaboration with the […]
‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’ on Amazon Prime
There’s something of a shaggy dog story quality to Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), an offbeat road movie / caper film starring Clint Eastwood as Thunderbolt, an ex-thief on the run from his former partners, and Jeff Bridges as a hotshot kid who calls himself Lightfoot and decides to become this flinty veteran’s sidekick. They’re unlikely […]
The Pure Pulp Pleasure of ‘Banshee’ on HBO Max
I like to think of Cinemax as the grindhouse version of HBO: not as exclusive, not as ambitious, not as high-toned (late night Cinemax wasn’t called “Skinemax” for nothing). And it’s the same when it comes to original programming, the cable TV mark of distinction. Where HBO boasts such impressive productions as The Wire and […]
The hilarious original ‘The In-Laws’
Alan Arkin is a dentist roped into a scheme by his future in-law (Peter Falk), who may or may not be a CIA agent, in one of the funniest American movies of the seventies.
What to stream: ‘Ammonite’ on Hulu, ‘Coming 2 America’ on Amazon, ‘Raya’ on Disney Premium
Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … Kate Winslet plays fossil hunter Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan is a young woman sent to the sea for her health in “Ammonite” (2020, R), a fictional love story inspired by the real […]