The Robbery (2017) Reviews

• Nice example for intro film class

  lakew00d2018-09-04

  I teach Film 101 and have shown this to every class. As the critic's review indicates, it's not very complex, but the acting is good, which makes it a great example for an intro level class, and dark comedy is always fun with freshmen. It also tests their powers of observation, because I don't tell them ahead of time that it was shot in one take. We discuss things like the importance of the unexpected twist in a short film, pacing and keeping the audience invested, how character is revealed through conflict and emotion, and how much planning is involved in shooting something like this in a single shot.

• Impressive in the how rather than the what

  bob the moo2017-03-29

  This dark comedy sees a meth head go to rob a store while her Uber waits for her in order to get money to get her dog out of the pound. Things don't go to plan – which is to say they go just as badly as you would expect that "plan" to go. There is a certain dark amusement in seeing Crystal (yes, really) have a disaster and one misfortune after another in pursuit of a small amount of money. The film plays it out with commitment, although at the same time it is pretty broad in how it does it – although it is not openly mocking the lead character, it doesn't build her out to be more than the butt of the misfortunes. In terms of content the film has this limit, although it is neat in what it does. The manner of delivery makes it worth noting; it is all done in one shot – from the Uber on the road, into the store, around the store, and back out again. Technically I liked this, but it also means the actress is impressive as she deals really well with hitting her marks, having special effects applied to her, and of course keeping her performance going at the same time. And it is a good performance that asks her to be crazy, sad, in pain, in rage – it is quite a range she goes through and she sells the character and scenario. The content itself is a bit broad, but the actual delivery is really good.

• A botched robbery, not a botched movie, but at times close to

  Horst_In_Translation2018-03-18

  Jim Cummings' "The Robbery" is an American 10-minute live action short film from 2017, so a fairly recent release that still managed a fairly decent deal of awards recognition. I liked some of it and I disliked some of it. Early on, it was a fun watch really with all that went wrong, but it quickly went over the top unfortunately and it just felt try-hard with all the phoning she does etc. and how the charm of authenticity was quickly gone because it was really overdone in a bad way. Also how the store owner guy kept shooting every time he hit her felt fairly unrealistic. Luckily, the ending outside the story was fairly funny again and this is also what eventually kept me from giving this short movie a thumbs-down. I think there are some really weak moments in the middle part and the execution how the information is provided to audiences also felt really shoddy sometimes, but still I think it is an okay watch overall. I definitely think with a bit more attention to detail and better writing, this could have resulted in one of the best short films from 2017 as the highs are as high as the lows are low. There is no mdeiocrity in here, either it's great or a failure. Go check it out, I think it's worth seeing. The best component in my opinion was maybe the really good camera work.

• The Slow Robbery

  mihai_alexandru_chindris2018-04-16

  I thought, at first, it is going to be epic and I'm gonna see some good action. But no, everything happened slowly and calmly. At how things evolved, it didn't seem like an actual robbery. There was more screaming and exchanges of swears than shooting and blood and stuff like that.