dfwforeignbuff Review of The Maiden Heist

The Maiden Heist (2009)

Better than Average Straight to DVD should have had theatrical release

[7/10 · 29 January 2010]

Maiden Heist (2008) The Maiden Heist quickly sold out at its opening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It's a light-hearted caper that makes for undemanding viewing. It is a fairly entertaining comedy heist film starring Morgan Freeman, William Macy, and Christopher Walken. Plot. Great art has its protectors every day in the major museums. Three guards are more than dedicated to the job they do. Their museum brings in modern work that has no appeal to the guards, and the museum authorities plan to sell the classic pieces, sending them elsewhere in the world. When Roger (Christopher Walken) and George (William H. Macy) and Charles (Morgan Freeman) find their long-beloved work transplanted to Europe, they not only miss their favorite art pieces, but they make plans to steal the works with which they have become obsessed. Roger becomes the mastermind of an inside plot to perform the biggest art heist in the history of their museum. First each must obtain a forgery; then, they have to smuggle the forgeries into the museum and find a way to make the switches. The heist is complicated by Roger's intrusive wife - he's promised her a trip to Florida for their anniversary - and George's proclivity for taking his clothes off when standing in front of the warrior statue he loves. THE MAIDEN HEIST was originally going to have a theatrical release, but the bankruptcy of the Yari Film Group put the film in a direct to DVD status. It feels like a 70s movie that Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon would have done, where slightly nutty characters would made the film but that's not the case anymore. This is a comedy that might make Woody Allen fans recall (affectionately) Small Time Crooks, even though this film is very different to Allen's caper. The Maiden Heist isn't another turkey unceremoniously dumped to Netflix. It's an above average straight-to-DVD effort, it is weaker than one might expect considering its power stars in the cast . It's really quite an entertaining comedy though more could have been done but I like it OK as it was. Not a great film but not a bad film 3 stars.