Here is the IMDb summary for Thunderbolt and Lightning - "With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist". Sounds like it's the sort of film that would be exciting and lots of fun doesn't it? Yeah well I'm sorry, but this really didn't do a lot for me I'm afraid.
For a start the actual plot doesn't really get any focus at all until we're close to the hour mark which isn't necessarily a problem in itself if the first half of the film does anything of interest, but unfortunately that isn't the case here.
Even if we overlook the rather contrived set-up to the story it's a really hard film to become involved with. The first hour consists of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot picking up prostitutes, stealing a car and being pursued by Leary (George Kennedy) who has a score to settle with Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood) as he believes that Thunderbolt set him up on a previous job. I haven't got a problem with silliness in films but it has to feel as though there is some sort of point to any of it. The first half is a rather dumb and random sequences of events serving no real purpose and the second half involves the planning and execution of the heist. For me, the two aspects don't mesh very well together and made the film feel uneven.
I also found it a little bit convenient that Leary would suddenly drop everything and decide to join Thunderbolt for one last job - given how angry he was with him previously. If I'm honest I just found many elements of the story to be a little hokey.
Another problem in this film is that it suffers from notably weak chemistry amongst its characters. Eastwood and Bridges are OK individually, but share few sparks when they're on screen together. Although to be fair to Bridges he did at least try and inject some fun into the film and managed to be both annoying and funny in equal measure. Kennedy and Lewis fared worse and seemed to add very little to the film.
Things improve slightly in the second half of the film when we're actually seeing the 'heist' itself. I thought that the planning and thought that went into the heist was clever, but again it wasn't exciting and once the heist is executed it was rather workmanlike and run of the mill and again just didn't do a lot for me.
Simply put, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a mixture of bad and mediocre and a film that doesn't deliver upon its rather exciting sounding premise.
For a start the actual plot doesn't really get any focus at all until we're close to the hour mark which isn't necessarily a problem in itself if the first half of the film does anything of interest, but unfortunately that isn't the case here.
Even if we overlook the rather contrived set-up to the story it's a really hard film to become involved with. The first hour consists of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot picking up prostitutes, stealing a car and being pursued by Leary (George Kennedy) who has a score to settle with Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood) as he believes that Thunderbolt set him up on a previous job. I haven't got a problem with silliness in films but it has to feel as though there is some sort of point to any of it. The first half is a rather dumb and random sequences of events serving no real purpose and the second half involves the planning and execution of the heist. For me, the two aspects don't mesh very well together and made the film feel uneven.
I also found it a little bit convenient that Leary would suddenly drop everything and decide to join Thunderbolt for one last job - given how angry he was with him previously. If I'm honest I just found many elements of the story to be a little hokey.
Another problem in this film is that it suffers from notably weak chemistry amongst its characters. Eastwood and Bridges are OK individually, but share few sparks when they're on screen together. Although to be fair to Bridges he did at least try and inject some fun into the film and managed to be both annoying and funny in equal measure. Kennedy and Lewis fared worse and seemed to add very little to the film.
Things improve slightly in the second half of the film when we're actually seeing the 'heist' itself. I thought that the planning and thought that went into the heist was clever, but again it wasn't exciting and once the heist is executed it was rather workmanlike and run of the mill and again just didn't do a lot for me.
Simply put, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a mixture of bad and mediocre and a film that doesn't deliver upon its rather exciting sounding premise.