The Art of the Steal (2013)

Crunch Calhoun, a semi-reformed art thief, agrees to get his old gang back together to pull off one last heist.

Director:

Jonathan Sobol

Writer:

Jonathan Sobol

Stars:

Kurt Russell, Jay Baruchel, Katheryn Winnick

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kurt Russell	...	Crunch Calhoun
Matt Dillon	...	Nicky Calhoun
Jay Baruchel	...	Francie Tobin
Kenneth Welsh	...	'Uncle' Paddy MacCarthy
Chris Diamantopoulos	...	Guy de Cornet
Katheryn Winnick	...	Lola
Jason Jones	...	Interpol Agent Bick
Terence Stamp	...	Samuel Winter
Devon Bostick	...	Ponch
Elle Downs	...	Female Border Guard
Durward Allan	...	Julius Friedman
Dax Ravina	...	Sunny
Jasmin Geljo	...	Detective Brodowski
Vieslav Krystyan	...	Detective Kumik
Stephen McHattie	...	Dirty Ernie

Storyline

Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell), a third rate motorcycle daredevil and semi-reformed art thief, agrees to get back into the con game and pull off one final lucrative art theft with his untrustworthy brother, Nicky (Matt Dillon). Reassembling the old team, Crunch comes up with a plan to steal a priceless historical book, but the successful heist leads to another far riskier plan devised by Nicky. They fail to realize each other's separate agendas when their plan goes awry in this con movie about honor, revenge and the bonds of brotherhood.

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Plot Keywords:

heist | thief | motorcycle | hiding in a car trunk | interpol | 

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Taglines:

It takes a great artist to pull off the perfect con

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language throughout including some sexual references

Did You Know?

Trivia

The establishing shot of the airport terminal, in the scene where Guy arrives, is not from a Canadian Airport. It is actually Terminal 2 of the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands.

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Goofs

The road signs mentioned are in fact Canadian, on Highway 401 leading out of Windsor, Ontario.

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Quotes

Nicky Calhoun: I'm Nicky. Paddy, Francie, Crunch.
Ponch: Some shitty aliases, you all sound like chocolate bars. Where is Twix?

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Crazy Credits

There are bloopers during the ending credits.

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Connections

Featured in Chelsea Lately: Episode #8.30 (2014)

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Soundtracks

In Dreams
Written by Roy Orbison
Performed by Roy Orbison

User Reviews

I like the effort.

It seems like forever since I saw Kurt Russell in something. I almost thought he was retired. Then I saw this at my local theater and realized Kurt is still rocking the old Snake Plissken hair style. That's OK, caused it works for him, and despite sporting the hair do for more than thirty years, it makes him look young and vibrate. As the title suggest, Kurt plays an experience thief. More precise he's Crunch Calhoun, a wheel man in a crew that also has his half-brother, Nicky Calhoun played by Matt Dillon as a member and Idea man. On their last Heist, Nicky gets caught and rats on his brother to stay out of Jail.After serving his time, Crunch becomes a struggling daredevil who gets pulled back into the game by his no good brother, who stumbles upon the ultimate Art Heist. That's how the title of the film doubles its cleverness, their a crew of experience art thieves, but that's where the cleverness really stops. I don't know if it's because everyone played their roles so dead on or because everyone was phoning in their performances for a pay check, but the film is way too predictable. The film follows the heist formula to the letter, and attempts to throw you off the scent, particularly with Jay Baruchel's character Francie, a thief who befriends Crunch at a time when the man was living on the up and up, and Katheryn Winnick who plays Crunch's girlfriend, Lola whose character's agenda could have kept me on the edge of my seat caused of a semi-love Triangle she created between Crunch and Nicky, but her character would have needed to be more developed to accomplish that. With the exception of Lola, The movie stands mostly on how interesting the actors made the characters they played. Watching them interact with each other was the best part. Like with veteran actor, Terrance Stamp playing a paroled ex-art thief force to work with a bumbling Interpol agent assigned to catch the crew doing something wrong in order to win his freedom. It is worth taking a gander at just to see Russell (and his hair), pal around with some interesting characters played by some decent actors, but it's nothing to go out of your way to see.

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

20 June 2014 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Fix

Filming Locations:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$40,003, 16 March 2014

Gross USA:

$64,065

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$77,450

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), Entertainment One

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1