The Hard Easy Movie Review

Jon Lindstrom must have thought he was on to the gimmick of the century when he sat down to write The Hard Easy: Two separate gangs plan a diamond theft that goes down at the same time. One gang shows up, only to find the other's already working the job. Now that's an "oh snap!" moment.

And hey, it's not a bad idea. The problem is that The Hard Easy doesn't have any other ideas to sustain the other 95 minutes that don't involve the two gangs facing off. Director Ari Ryan practically admits this from the start. He opens with a snippet of the botched heist, then flashes back to how we got there, then we see the heist in all its glory. Those are some rocky times, alas. Try as he might to make Henry Thomas's lovable loser Paul into the hero we're supposed to root for, it doesn't really pan out. Thomas is a terrible choice for the role, in the end, a whiny loser and a bit of a jerk (and on the hook for countless gambling debts) that deserves what he has coming. The schlub on the other team: David Boreanaz, an odd choice who has substantially less screen time than Thomas but does little with what he gets.

The Hard Easy marks time by parading a variety of biggish stars (Peter Weller, Bruce Dern, Gary Busey) in smallish roles, pacing back and forth as we wend our way toward the dual-gang heist. Rising star Vera Farmiga saves much of the film in her (also smallish) role as a doctor who ultimately turns out to be in on the whole shebang.

But it's Easy's resolution that feels like the biggest let-down of them all. What do rival gangs do when both try to rob the same place at the same time? Well, they kill each other, of course. The Hard Easy's final parade of bullets is so pat, so expected, that I was waiting for almost anything else to happen except for what turns out to be the blatantly obvious. Wrong!

The DVD includes a commentary track and an interview with Ryan.