HOW TO ROB A BANK

By: debbie lynn elias

Making its world premiere at LAFF 2007 is one of my festival favorites; a competitor for Best Narrative – Andrew Jenkins’ HOW TO ROB A BANK (And 10 Tips to Actually Ger Away With It).

What is one thing that each of us gripes about at some time in our lives? Credit card fees? Late fees? Surcharges? Interest rates? How about those ATM fees? Yeah, that’s right. $1.50 for the machine, $3.00 if its not your bank. Yep. The ATM.

To parody one of my all time favorite characters, “Lethal Weapon’s” Leo Getz, “They **** you at the ATM.”

Jason Taylor aka Jinx is hard-working average guy. He lives from paycheck to paycheck and by the time the end of the week rolls around he’s lucky if he’s got $20 left. So, how does he feel when he has $20 and tries to take it from the ATM only to have that nasty little machine beep at him “INSUFFICIENT FUNDS”? Great. He’s got $20 but can’t get his $20 because he has to pay the bank $1.50 to take his own $20 which means he doesn’t have $20. Get it? Sadly, I bet you do. (Hey, I know a bank that charges you to make a deposit let alone take your money out!)

Mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore, Jinx marches into the bank to demand his money.

Unfortunately, he interrupts a bank robbery and finds himself locked in the vault with a woman named Jessica who he believes is a hostage. Turns out, Jessica is a computer hacker for hire and is part of the team robbing the bank. And it’s not just any robbery. Someone other than Jinx is mad as hell over ATM fees, and he wants them all.

Toss in some incompetent cops, one good cop that’s trying, an average guy using cell phones to pit bad guy against bad guy, bad guys against good guys and even good guys against good guys, a vault that has locks that only open by breaking the computer code, a thief with a bad headache popping pills like they were candy, aka’s like “Simon” only this is for Simon Le Bon not Simon Says, and unwitting hero who only wants his $20 back……hmmmm…..sounds like anyone else we all know? Sounds to me like John McClane and “Die Hard.”

But, despite the very very very noticeable similarities to a compilation of the some of the best of “Die Hard”, not to mention writer/director Andrew Jenkins numerous references to Bruce Willis during his Q&A with the audience after the premiere, HOW TO ROB A BANK, is intricately well written, extremely well acted and creatively lensed and edited. And let’s not forget all the helpful hints on how to rob a bank that are imparted to us throughout the film. Remember, **it happens, always have a back up plan and **it happens.

Nick Stahl blew me away as Jinx. With multiple “monologues” and extended dialogue with Erika Christensen’s Jessica, he is compelling, convincing and oh so likeable. Gavin Rossdale steps in as bank robber Simon. Polished, European, classy and befuddled all at the same time, he is in essence, Hans Gruber comes back from the dead. Rossdale has a flippancy and demeanor that works so well with the cell phone conversations that they are laugh out loud funny.

Former pro-football player Terry Crewes is the put-upon Officer DeGepse, detective in charge of talking to Jinx and Simon and he too, steps up to the plate and adds at little bit of Reginald VelJohnson’s “Die Hard” Al Powell.

Calling on his background in commercials and music videos, director Jenkins gives the film a high-end, fast paced polished look with a 21st Century technological edginess that is riveting and at times, quite funny. Not an easy shoot, there are 3 basic sets – the vault, the bank lobby and outside the bank. The only method of communication amongst them is by cell phone and during shooting, all “phone communications” were being delivered to dead phone air, making the actors performances even more impressive. For you trivia buffs, the bank lobby in the film is actually the lobby from the old Bank of America in downtown LA.

Trust me on this one, you won’t feel cheated or robbed with HOW TO ROB A BANK.

Jinx: Nick Stahl
Simon: Gavin Rossdale
Jessica: Ericka Christensen
Officer DeGepse: Terry Crewes

Written and directed by Andrew Jenkins.