Steal Big Steal Little (1995) Reviews

• Character driven romp

  martinjensen2005-05-30

  I woke up in my hotel room and this was playing on HBO. I knew it was an over-the-top farce, but I had to watch. The characters were great, the narrative had a magical component which you can struggle against or ride along with. I found the ride worth the suspension of disbelief. How else can you do a prince/pauper tale against a backdrop of Southern California real estate, Chicago gangsters and immigrant farm laborers? The plot twists were many, but not hard to follow. One recurring theme was that those who would rule by money become ruled by it; those who are ruled by the heart find the resources that they need. Is it a fairytale? Sure! What's wrong with fairy tales? It was a charming film and one I will recommend.

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• Location, location, location

  WriterDude2004-01-25

  (This is an edited/revised post): This film deeply affected me in two ways, which I will present in reverse chronological order: 2) The movie was shot largely on location, in and around my hometown of Santa Barbara. When I saw it in 1996, I was nine years removed from home and doing radio in Missouri. It was good to see home again. 1) However, I had the opportunity to go home in early 1995 when this was being shot. To his security team's utter horror, I attempted to park near the SB County Courthouse, somewhere dangerously close to (read: half a block away from) Andy Garcia's trailer. After several contentious profanities were hurled at me I moved the car, during which time I uttered a wish out loud that the film would turn out to be an utterly unwatchable piece of crap, and would completely tank at the box office. Moral of the story? Don't go on location and then let your people treat a local like something stuck to your shoe -- he just might have unknown powers in putting curses. To the film's credit, they did have the good taste to shoot at Papagallo's on De La Guerra Plaza (try the ceviche), and it also showed the annual Summer Solstice Parade in a pretty good light. EDIT: Since I wrote most of the above, I've had occasion to revisit this movie (there was nothing better on HBO that night), and I've reluctantly come to the conclusion it really is funny. Mostly due to the performances of Alan Arkin and Joe ("Joey Pants") Pantoliano. Okay, so I ran afoul of Andy Garcia's people during the shoot and they honked me off. And then my first viewing of the film left me cold. I've since warmed up to it (and removed my negative comments in this edit). Take that for what it's worth -- and I hope it's worth something, because I'm not a big fan of eating crow in public.

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• Stole 2hrs of my life

  R-Type-22001-07-31

  This film was terrible. Andy Garcia plays two twin brothers who are polar opposites - one of them a generous, Bohemian, harmonica-playing, salsa-dancing, illegal-refugee-harbouring saint-like figure; the other a dastardly "businessman"-like scoundrel. They battle throughout over an inheritance neither of them really seems to deserve, and {spoiler alert!!!} at the end there is an epiphany of biblical proportions as Brother Bad realises just in time the error of his ways. Precipitated by what? A crazed rant from Brother Good whilst in a hot-air balloon about the importance of love, the rivers, the land, the family.... The humanity!

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• Dreadfully confusing

  ginger_sonny2004-08-03

  Directed by Andrew Davis, starring Andy Garcia and Alan Arkin. Awful.... Two Garcias - he stars as identical twins, one good, the other mean - battle it out over their guardian's will in Davis's witless follow-up to The Fugitive. Although it's supposed to be a comedy with a moral message, this actually has no redeeming features whatsoever. From the lack of decent jokes to Garcia's squabbling siblings, it's a film that will have you looking at your watch more often than you look at the screen. When the supporting cast of livestock out-act everybody and everything else, you know you're in trouble.

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• Worth seeing just for Santa Barbara at it's most beautiful

  gazelam2005-10-17

  During the time this was being shot I was spending a fair bit of time in Santa Barbara on a work assignment (tough duty, eh?). I never ran afoul of the movie crowd, but I saw their antics from afar and in the newspaper. That winter, the California coast had been totally drenched by rain for many weeks. Landslides were abundant. By the time they began filming in the spring, the coastal area was as green as I have ever seen it. The film makers did a wonderful job of capturing that on film. *****Minor Spoiler - The solstice parade was staged in the spring for the movie, and although it was sunny that day, it was unseasonably cold. You can probably see goosebumps on the people with fewer clothes on. Cheers

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