'How to Rob a Bank' Review: A Heist Movie That Begs You to Hit Subscribe

‘How to Rob a Bank’ is David Leitch’s newest film, and its premise is built for the scrolling age. Nicholas Hoult plays Ryan, the leader of a crew of robbers who film their raids and broadcast them online to an enormous following. It is a Robin Hood tale rebuilt for the algorithm, written by Mark Bianculli and released through Amazon MGM Studios.

The film runs 122 minutes, carries an R rating, and rolls out in several territories from November 11 before reaching the US and UK on November 13. Around Hoult you get Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Pete Davidson, Christian Slater and John C. Reilly, a lineup that signals how badly the studio wants this to feel like an event. Leitch already has ‘John Wick’, ‘Bullet Train’ and ‘The Fall Guy’ behind him, so his name on a poster promises slick, physical filmmaking.

That promise gets kept only in part, and this is where my feelings turn complicated. The heists have real snap and the editing moves like a feed you cannot stop refreshing, which suits the subject. Yet the action rarely climbs to the jaw dropping level I wanted from a director with this résumé, and a single chase sequence is the stretch that really stays with me.

Hoult is the reason the whole thing holds together. He plays Ryan with a true believer’s fervor, and that conviction carries the story forward even when the script is treading water. Reilly and Davidson bring welcome personality to their scenes, and the back and forth between Reilly and Kravitz is one of the most enjoyable pieces of the film.

Kravitz herself is the biggest missed opportunity. Her hacker, Reagan Gardner, is stuck under house arrest, which is a sharp idea, but she ends up serving the plot more than she gets to be a person. She is kept apart from Hoult and his crew, so the two halves of the story never truly connect.

The politics are the other soft spot. The film shouts about greed, wealth and fighting the system, but the message stays on the surface and the characters are too thinly sketched for it to land with any emotional weight. I also wanted far more laughs, considering how much comic talent is sitting in the cast.

Still, I walked out entertained, and that counts for something. It is loud, quick and easy to enjoy, even if little lingers once the credits roll. I give ‘How to Rob a Bank’ 7 out of 10.