Thief – Review

A dark and stormy night. Perfect weather for a heist. As one guy in a car monitors police chatter, Frank (Caan) is on the safe inside, drilling the lock and sending sparks flying. When he can see the gears inside, he can wedge a piece of metal in and spring open the door. With the main door cracked, a quick sledge into a few smaller locks busts open all the loot.

Frank rifles through the boxes inside, looking for his target. His watchman crew all confirm he is clear, and multiple men filter out of their spots down to a getaway vehicle. Rain splashes as it takes off with a few men inside, with two others shedding their jumpsuits and finding their own vehicles parked up the block. A job well done for Frank and his crew. Once the vehicles are ditched, the men are mostly in the clear and meet up later to look over loot.

Frank goes back to his day job selling cars, but this part of life excites him less. Still, he knows he will have to slow down someday and look to retire from thieving. The dull sales lot only propels him so far though. Good thing he can meet up with his fence at a nearby restaurant and turn his loot into serious tax-free dough. However, his fence says there are some stand-up guys that want to meet him. Frank declines, instead eying his hottie girlfriend Jessie (Weld) and setting a dinner date.

He gets a letter from an old friend Okla (Nelson) who needs to see him. Also, his crew has a problem and Barry (Belushi) is trying to reach him with news that their pickup was not made, and their man was splattered all over the sidewalk out of a 12^th story window. The merchandise and the cash are unknown. Uh oh.

Many pieces are laid quickly in Thief, and the crime tale continues to roll along, sending multiple parties at each other and a few nice twists into the plot. It is a well-paced tale with elements of tension, mystery and heists. The cast is all around strong and the script is well done. Excellent directing from Mann as usual rounds out a very solid tale that includes some great shots and atmosphere scenes.

Thief definitely feels like a precursor to Heat, and that is a good thing. It still remains quite different from that film and should be seen. Grab your crew, fire up the blow torch and get ready to crack some locks.

"My money in 24 hours, or you are gonna wear your ass for a hat."

There is a Director’s Cut of this film, and a Director’s Special Edition. These cuts are very similar with minor differences that likely would not be noticed.