Martin Bradley Apart from an unpleasant whiff of homophobia, exemplified largely by Martin Balsam's appallingly stereotypical gay character, "The Anderson Tapes" is a mostly excellent heist movie from Sidney Lumet, the heist here being that of a fancy New York apartment building and it's organized by Sean Connery's recently released jailbird. The twist, for want of a better word, is that Connery's every move is being filmed or recorded by someone. The robbery itself, which takes up most of the film, is very well handled and there is a good supporting cast that includes a young Christopher Walken in one of his early roles. Ultimately, though, this is minor Lumet, entertaining certainly but hardly memorable.

Austin Walker *SPOILERS?* Notable for having one of the most disastrous getaways of any heist film, the most distracting Welsh-disguised-as-New-York-accent I've ever seen, a truly impotent and therefore a real short-tempered henchman who Connery has to give a little glove slap to. I think, at one point, Connery doesn't even rough him up, he just pushes him by the burlap mask until he stumbles over like Porky Pig in a jumpsuit. I don't know. Dog Day Afternoon, Reservoir Dogs, or the lesser known Friends of Eddie Coyle are better if you're actually interested in the psychology of the thief instead of them trying to look badass and smoke cigarettes and slap chicks after they bang them. Its what got rich 70's directors like Sidney Lumet boned up enough to film it at least once a decade until his death, and God bless him, why shouldn't he? That being said, as a heist film, its probably only inferior to those that I named. For every Anderson Tapes, there are a dozen Bank Jobs, Snatches, Lock, Stocks, and Smoking Barrels, and Things to Do in Denver When You're Deads. That last one probably doesn't roll off the tongue quite as smooth. But its a pathetic film with guys pointing guns before swapping opinions on pop-culture. You get the idea. Anderson Tapes on the other hand, has Sean Connery pre-hair loss, great direction, and Christopher Walken looking emotionless about the things that make normal humans have to pop a couple Xanax before doing. Or maybe its because he was told "You're playing the part of bad guy number 3. Your name is the Kid and you wear a mask and drive a Volkswagen for the gang."

JohnHowardReid The extent to which unauthorized and illegal bugging is practiced by Government Agencies in the USA is the subject of this crime thriller. The crime itself is not so much ingenious as audacious. But this one has a twist! Although the pre-planning sequences are somewhat slow and over-talkative, once the robbery itself gets under way, our interest is fully captured, and it is resolved in a thrillingly staged climax. Like many of director Sidney Lumet's productions, the film was made entirely in New York City. Our interest is also enhanced by some ingratiating portrayals, particularly Martin Balsom's study of a phony antique dealer. Sean Connery fills the main role adequately but with little of the distinction he brought to James Bond. However, Dyan Cannon makes an attractive female lead. Nevertheless, the whole film would benefit considerably by at least twenty minutes of deft trimming. Even some of the climactic scenes need speeding up, but most of the slow passages occur in the first half of the movie.

Robert J. Maxwell I expected more from this film, influenced, I guess, by my TV Guide which gave it a rating of three and a half out of four. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who has done some fine New York City stories -- "Serpico", "The Pawnbroker" -- and the cast includes people like Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, and Christopher Walken. How could it go wrong? Well, it doesn't go wrong -- exactly. The first half, though, looks a lot like an ordinary caper movie. Connery is just out of jail and assembles and finances a handful of experts to rob an entire high-end apartment house of every valuable in every flat.Lumet and his writers have even inserted a bit of humor, largely based on Martin Balsam's gay interior decorator, and Balsam is great in the role. He's given a couple of witty lines and moues that never quite go over the top, though they approach it. Ralph Meeker as Delaney, the police captain in charge, really DOES go over the top with his machine-processed working-class New York accent. There's ironic humor, too, in the incremental revelation that three of the conspirators are being covertly watched by three independent law-enforcement agencies, none of whom know about the others: Walken because the Narcs are interested in him, the black driver because he's a Black Panther, and the mobster who is providing the money because he's -- well, he's Italian. Not that the records play any part in the story, which is all the more reason for a talented guy like Quincy Jones to have avoided all those screeching electronic noises on the sound track.But Lumet is a tragedian at heart. He ends few of his movies happily, a tendency he shares with some other directors and writers, like Roman Polanski and Stephen King. The last half of the film has the robbery crew hurrying about their business in the apartment house, not realizing the crime has already been detected, the street sealed off by police, and a Special Tactical Police Unit (or whatever it's called) is already rappelling down the side of the edifice. There is a climactic shoot out in which people are realistically killed.Lumet has directed this uncertain story with noticeable skill. He intercuts long scenes of the preparation and execution of the robbery with briefer scenes of witnesses describing that happened to them. There are also cuts to the post-crime events involving police on the street. At first we're unsure of what's going on in the background except that we notice a lot of bustle. With each cut it becomes increasingly clear that what's going on is that dead bodies are being removed and put into an ambulance, so the audience only gradually becomes aware of the fact that the ending is going to be melancholy.But in asking the viewer to make the leap from the assembly of a comic caper crew into tragedy, Lumet is asking a lot. Let me put it this way: Sean Connery is not the kind of actor who should be shot in the back and die.