Director Steven Soderbergh
Written by Rebecca Blunt

Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Seth McFarlane, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keogh, Brian Gleeson, Jack Quiad, Hilary Swank, Dwight Yoakam, David Denman, Katie Holmes, Farrah MacKenzie, Katherine Waterston. 

After being laid off from his construction job in the tunnels under the NASCAR racing track, West Virginian native Jimmy Logan (Tatum) hatches a plan to rob it. His plan is to use his knowledge of the pneumatic tubes that carry all the money on the biggest racing day of the year.

With the help of his one arm – sorry one-HANDED brother Clyde (Driver) – and one of the best explosive experts he knows, Joe (Craig). One problem, Joe is in jail. So they plan to break him out, steal the money, and get him back, all in the one day.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It is a slight homage to Soderbergh’s own Ocean’s Eleven trilogy (with there even being an Ocean’s reference thrown in). The characters are all very well written and given enough to do. With such strong performances throughout it was genuinely refreshing to watch. Special shout out to Craig as the scene stealing Joe Bangs, and I quite enjoyed Swank’s FBI character who comes into the film late into the third act and wish we had more of her (spinoff maybe?). MacFarlane is unrecognisable as the snake-oil businessman Max, who has a few memorable scenes alongside the racer he sponsors (Stan). Not one of the cast doesn’t shine in their role, and is a testament to the script written by “Rebecca Blunt”

The story is easy enough to follow, and there is a fun soundtrack which pays tribute to the late great John Denver. MacKenzie’s rendition of Take me Home, Country Roads is a beautiful part of the film. If I was going to make any negative comments, it would be it is a tad overlong at 118m, and a few of the characters are a tad underused such as Stan’s racer Dayton White, and a few of the female characters (Holmes, and Swank) could have been fleshed out more.

If you’re looking for a fun heist flick, then this is a great choice.

4/5