Two friends and convicts, Joe and Terry, break out of Oregon State Penitentiary in a concrete mixing truck and start a bank robbing spree, hoping to fund a dream they share. They become known as the "Sleepover Bandits" because of their modus operandi: they kidnap the manager of a target bank the night before a planned robbery, then spend the night with the manager's family; early the next morning, they accompany the manager to the bank to get their money. Using dim-witted would-be stunt man Harvey Pollard as their getaway driver and lookout, the three successfully pull off a series of robberies that gets them recognition on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and ultimately the reward for information leading to their capture is increased to $1 million.
When Kate, a housewife with a failing marriage, decides to run away, she ends up in the hands of the criminals. Initially attracted to Joe, she also ends up in bed with Terry and a confused love triangle begins.
The three of them go on the lam and manage to pull off a few more robberies, but after a while the two begin to fight over Kate, and she decides to leave them. The two criminals then decide to pull off one last job.
The story is told in flashbacks, framed by the story of the pair's last robbery of the Alamo Bank, as told by Criminals at Large, a fictional reality television show, with which they taped an interview stating that Kate was only a hostage, not a participant. The show tells the story of their last job, which is known to be a failure when Kate tips off the police and the two are caught in the act. The two then begin to argue when Joe tells the police "You won't take us alive!" and the argument gets to the point where the two of them shoot each other dead.
At the end of the film the real story behind the last job is revealed: Harvey used some of his special effects to make it seem as though Terry and Joe were shooting each other. Dressed as paramedics, Harvey and his girlfriend Claire then run in and place the stolen money, Terry, and Joe in body bags while Kate (who was in on the plan) distracts the police by pretending to pass out in shock upon seeing the "bodies". In the ambulance, Harvey used electronics to blow out his tires which sent the ambulance into a junkyard. Under his jumpsuit, Harvey was wearing a fire suit. He lit himself on fire and rigged a bomb to go off. Harvey, Claire, Terry, and Joe flee the scene, leading officials to believe that the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Kate receives the $1 million reward for having turned them in.
Reunited, Joe, Terry, Harvey, and Kate make it to Mexico to live out their dream. The last scene shows Harvey and Claire getting married in Mexico and Kate kissing Joe and Terry passionately.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 138 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "The story may not warrant its lengthy running time, but the cast of Bandits makes it an enjoyable ride."[2]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[4]
Time Out wrote, "Despite a plot as old as the hills and a title that pitches for outlaw nostalgia, this is a reasonable hybrid, a character-led comic ramble along the highways and byways of genre - buddy pic, heist film, romance and road movie. Add light media satire and, with Levinson's emphasis on performance and dialogue, you have a higher-end studio project, albeit overlong and uneven, with a residue of indie spirit."[5]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 2 stars out of possible 4, praising the main performances but criticizing the uneven tone, writing: "It's rare for a movie to have three such likable characters and be so unlikeable itself."[6]
In 2007 in New York, five men were prosecuted and convicted for crimes imitative of this film's plot.[7]
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film opened at #2, behind Training Day, earning $13 million.[8] It beat out other newcomer Corky Romano by just over four million dollars.[9] The film grossed $67.6 million worldwide, against a budget of $75 million.[10]
Home media
Bandits was released on DVD and VHS on April 2, 2002.[11] On March 22, 2016, the film was released on Blu-ray.[12]
