Thievery corporation

>> Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are Bandits

by MARK SLUTSKY

Both a caper movie and a comedy, Barry Levinson's Bandits is perhaps not enough of either. It's hard to tell what the director was really going for; the movie is funny at times and has some clever bank-robbing business, but it doesn't really add up to a coherent whole. The movie's even disjointed stylistically--the camerawork is often deliberately shaky and the picture grainy, and then all of the sudden there's a beautifully composed shot of a sunset.

But Levinson's career is a bit like that--from smart, often funny dramas like Diner and the recent, overlooked Liberty Heights to questionable stuff like Sphere and Jimmy Hollywood. He's generally got a good eye, casting-wise, though, and in that respect Bandits is pretty solid. Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis are the titular thieves--a pretty classic odd couple with Thornton the smart, obsessive neurotic and Willis as the suaver tough-guy type--and Cate Blanchett is the desperate, bored housewife they pick up along the way. Thornton inhabits his role quite well, and Blanchett is always terrific to watch, but Willis does go a little overboard with the smirk and the pony tail. Uh oh--it's the Return of Bruno all over again (though thankfully without the piano).

Though Bandits never really follows completely through with them, it does have some pretty good ideas. Bank robbers Thornton and Willis realize they can clean out the banks a lot easier by showing up at the manager's house the night before and bringing him or her to open the vault for them in the morning. Thus they earn their notoriety as the "sleepover bandits." The concept is good, but we never really find out what goes on all night. Makeovers? Pillow fights? There's one pretty funny scene as the family they've picked tries to have a normal dinner, but it seems like there's a lot of comic potential wasted. One of the movie's real assets, though, is Blanchett, who steals most of her scenes, with her Bonnie-Tyler-listening character (who's memorized all the lyrics to "Total Eclipse of the Heart") being both comic and vaguely sad.

Maybe Bandits would screen best on video. It's mildly amusing and mostly competent, but not much more. Certainly it'd be a lot stronger if Levinson had a little more focus, a clearer idea of what kind of movie he wanted to make.

Bandits opens Friday, Oct. 12