Review of SNEAKERS

SNEAKERS

In 1969, MARTIN BRICE and COSMO (apparently no other name) are cyber-pranksters playing Robin Hood. Martin leaves their apartment to get pizza, and a few minutes later, the police, not happy with how the youths redistribute wealth, break in and arrest Cosmo. Martin goes on the lam.

Fast forward to the present (1992), where Martin, now MARTIN BISHOP (Robert Redford), heads a respectable but scarcely profitable team of security specialists. They who break into banks and then tell the managers where their defenses are weak.  Other team members include: DARREN "MOTHER" ROSKOW (Dan Aykroyd), who believes (among other things) the moon landing was staged; DONALD CREASE (Sidney Poitier), a CIA officer who left under mysterious circumstances, CARL ARBOGAST, a young, horny genius; and IRWIN "WHISTLER" EMERY, who is blind.

They are approached by two NSA agents, DICK GORDON and BUDDY WALLACE, who are impressed by their reputation. Dick and Buddy are willing to pay large amounts of money to steal a box capable of breaking any code from any government or business in the world. Martin and his friends are reluctant, but the two NSA agents sweeten the deal; they know Martin is a fugitive, and they can clean his record if he cooperates, or send him to jail if he doesn't.

They manage to steal the box without too much trouble, thanks to blind Whistler who, with Holmesian logic, deduces where it is. They give the box to Dick and Buddy, but OH NO—those two aren't real NSA agents. They are part of a conspiracy led by, of all people, Martin's old buddy, Cosmo (Ben Kingsley). The crew must run for their lives, and then steal the box back again or chaos will result.

This movie has some silly parts--for one, Cosmo ignores a prime rule for successful villains (kill the hero yourself instead of delegating it to a henchman and walking out of the room)--but these aren't bad enough to spoil the movie. The cast has top notch actors, and the interplay between the team members, especially paranoid 'Mother, and the others' is fun, Scenes of violence and action are nice interspersed with the humor. Except for some vague bashing of governmental intrusions, there's no social significance or intellectual message, but it's fun. Overall, I rate it at ++++. It can get your pulse up to a run.