American Animals

2018 "You don't know where the line is until you cross it."
7| 1h57m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 June 2018 Released
Producted By: Film4 Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.americananimals.film
Synopsis

Lexington, Kentucky, 2004. Four young men attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in the history of the United States.

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mauriciofernandogerhardt The story: Doper artist teen goes on a school excursion to a special room on a library and sees books worth millions of dollars, being protected by a single librarian. He tells this to his charismatic friend who steals stuff from places. They start creating a plan on how to steal the books. They eventually get a third and then a fourth to join the project. The idea is to go during the day, disguised as old people, use a taser to knockout the librarian, steal the books, use an elevator to get out, use a car to get away, get documents in NY that say the books are legitimate, and sell them to fencers in Europe. What really happens in the movie: the day they are using old people's costumes there are 4 librarians on the special room, so they give up. But then they come the next day without the disguises. The stealer teen tases the librarian, but that doesn't knock her out. He threatens her. They get the books, but when they go into the elevator the third teen presses lots of buttons on it, and they stop on a lot of floors, end up running down stairs and leave some books behind. They try to get the papers for the books in NY. At this point I was like: Duh! She works with rare books. Do you think she hasn't heard about this national big robbery that happened by teens? Don't you think she's gonna tell the cops? At the end, the teens are just being stupid, until the cops get them. What probably happened in real life: A lot of the things on this movie are probably lies to create more drama. E.g.: old people disguises, pressing many buttons, etc.The style: Like one of those "based on real facts" movies, but on certain moments they put the real people, whose lives the movie was based on, being interviewed. It was an interesting approach to movie making, but there's a point where the real person say something, then the character says the same thing, then the real person say another thing, then the character repeats it, which was annoying. Also, it was absurd to me how all the actors were actually uglier and less charismatic than the real people they were portraying. Also, it's obvious to me that one of the real people was the charismatic leader that all the others gravitated towards, but that doesn't get explored on the movie.
vandrist This movie is pretty much the American dream of get rich quick while ignoring the consequences of your actions. The actual story is great and the choice of cast for this movie were great choices. I can honestly say that I'm not into bank robbery, or heist movies, but this one was really good, in a disastrous kind of way. I love how they incorporate the real life people into this movie, having it pretty much like a confession style of the events that occurred. It's a different but great movie in an underwhelming 2018.
frankkaren-30172 The whole thing was utterly ridiculous, supposedly true but still ridiculous. Four idiots. So many "holes" in the thought process of these four main characters that it's embarrassing to think they actually "walk among us" and believed this heist would have a positive ending. One of the worst movies we've seen this year; we wasted our money and over 2 hrs of our time.
chuck-85955 This is an excellent movie but I admit I have a different take on why than most other reviewers. For me, American Animals has a "Sixth Sense" ending. It has to do with what the real Spencer says about Warren's trip to Amsterdam. If you take it the way I did, then Warren changes from a goofy, likeable non-conformist to a very clever psychopath. By that I mean a highly manipulative person who lacks empathy for others and uses them only for personal gain.Warren in my view is the ringleader of the so-called heist. He uses different strategies to lure each of the others into his crazy plan; young men who under most circumstances would never have participated in such a hair-brained scheme. Once he hooks them, he forces them into situations where any attempt to extricate themselves winds up getting them in even deeper. In the end, Warren has no real plan for selling the stolen books and what he attempts to pull off at Christie's in NY is shockingly absurd.This is a great story about how average people when vulnerable, can be lured under the right circumstances into doing some very deviant and dangerous things by a psychopathic predator. Sound familiar? If you know anything about WW II it should.