Word: falke
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...blame must be with Friedkin, since the cast couldn't be better. The Brink's gang is played by a bunch of lovable actors who delight in the roles of these bumbling underdogs. Heading the group is Peter Falk as the mastermind--if you can call him that--of this near-perfect heist. His criminal genius is somewhat in doubt, since the movie opens with one of his novice efforts, the burglary of a sausage factory. After much tool-dropping and other displays of incompetence, the job ends with Falk hiding in a room full of chickens, only...
None of this helps the film much. The slow pace leaves the Brink's gang looking like the Three Stooges on quaaludes. Falk and his cohorts Paul Sorvino, Allen Goorwitz and Peter Boyle (whose intermittent Irish accent has to be heard to be believed), all ham up their little peculiarities, but things never quite start rolling. The pace starts to pick up midway through the film, when Warren Oates appears as a half-crazed demolition expert whose plans to blow up the Brink's safe with a bazooka stun the rest of the gang into disbelief...
...Falk sometimes manages to escape the director's slow pace. His portrayal of the thief with the heart of gold never falters. When he accidentally discovers that the Brink's fortress is no more than a poorly protected warehouse of money waiting to be hit, he rushes out and buys his wife a 100 per cent muskrat coat to celebrate his upcoming...
...robbery itself does not come off so well. The repetive humor kills any suspense, and even Falk can't save it--his antics are inspired but predictable. Friedkin tries to enliven the end of the film by dragging in J. Edgar Hoover for a little fun. But Hoover comes off as the same old commie-hating tyrant everyone has seen before. Friedkin fails to embellish this stock figure in any way. It isn't terribly original and it's not funny to boot...
...Peter Falk, coming on like Groucho Marx doing an impersonation of Humphrey Bogart, makes the mangy most of his role as the gang's leader. A conniver with a heart of gold, he uses his loot to buy his wife (Gena Rowlands) a showy "100% muskrat" coat. As the gang's detonation expert, Warren Gates has a hell of a fine time: throughout the film he launches into deliriously obsessive speeches about imagined World War II combat adventures. The other principals, Peter Boyle, Paul Sorvino and Allen Goorwitz (the actor formerly known as Allen Gar field), all have...