The Anderson Tapes

The film begins with Duke Anderson (Sean Connery) getting out of prison after a ten-year stint. Apparently, he took the rap in order to protect mobsters...and now he's expecting them to show their gratitude by backing his next heist. What is the heist? It's robbing a bunch of luxury apartments in New York...a job that bring him and his mob a fortune. The first part of the film is about the planning of the heist as well as the IRS accidentally catching wind of this. The second part is the heist itself...the serious parts and the oddly comical. I really laughed at Judith Lowery's role as the very feisty old woman...a role she also played marvelously on the TV show "Phyllis". Other funny parts were the disabled kid as well as the hellishly horrid police operator! Now this is not to say it's a comedy...for the most part it isn't. Overall, a very interesting heist film....which isn't too surprising as most heist films seem to be quite enjoyable.

Sean Connery stars in director Sidney Lumet's fast paced thriller centering on the burglary of a swank NYC apartment house. The gimmick being that the would be robbers, along with every move they make, are being recorded by the government. This explains the overuse of reel to reel sound effects. Connery is good as a third rate hood and Alan King makes one of his sporadic film appearances as a mafiosa, which is pretty much all he ever plays, but he's good at it so why mess with it. Dyan Cannon is in it too...she asks Connery to "ball." It is 1970! Christopher Walken, Garrett Morris, and a particularly swishy Martin Balsam also star. A classic.

Veteran director Sidney Lumet has made many above-average films in his time, but 'The Anderson Tapes', a generic heist thriller from the early 1970s, is not one of them. The dialogue and acting (including that of lead Sean Connery) are both poor, and the Quincey Jones score is horrid; the camera work is better but insufficient to compensate for a movie where none of the characters seem wholly real (in a way quite typical of indifferent movies from this era). Another problem is that the film lacks purpose; the tapes of the title seem quite irrelevant, and although the confused ending is in some sense superior to the glossy "perfection" at the conclusion of movies like "Ocean's Eleven", the viewer is still left asking "so what?". Overall, this not an awful film, but it is lacking in much to distinguish it from the very large number of similar movies.

Beautifully made caper film by one of the best in his prime, Sydney Lumet. The pacing and balance may be the true art of the film. Premise is a bit far fetched: recently released con (Sean Connery) plans extravagant heist of entire Manhattan apartment building using mob financing. The hitch is that most everywhere he goes during his planning, electronic surveillance follows from varied and sundry sources. A young Chris Walken heads a superb support group including Dyan Cannon. Martin Balsam is absolutely spectacular as the femme antique dealer. Slightly dated, but never tired, the story progresses like a time bomb countdown. Often imitated, rarely duplicated.

Recently-paroled master thief Sean Connery plots one last job: robbing the residents of an entire New York apartment house on a holiday weekend! Engaging heist flick, adapted from Lawrence Sanders' novel by Frank Pierson and directed by Sidney Lumet, takes a dark turn towards the end--much like Pierson and Lumet's later "Dog Day Afternoon" in 1975. The title-named tapes are a bluff (and, when revealed as such, more perplexing than amusing) and the asides with Connery and "kept woman" Dyan Cannon don't add up to much, though she's still nice to have around in the first-half. Pierson's character profiles and dialogue are expressive and sharp, and there are wonderful supporting performances by Martin Balsam, Alan King, and Christopher Walken in his film debut. Connery is terrific as well, but some viewers may not like the downbeat third act. The joshing tone gives out, replaced with action and consequences, yet it's all quite marvelous from a filmmaker's standpoint. *** from ****