Stander

Though the film contains a fantastic performance by Thomas Jane (no surprise there), Stander is nevertheless a dull and overlong heist flick. Jane plays Andre Stander, a South African cop who becomes so disillusioned with his job that he robs a bank one afternoon for kicks. After he gets away with it, Stander discovers that being a bank robber pays pretty darn well and keeps at it – while also staying at his job as a police officer (and even investigating his own crimes). The main problem with Stander is that we never find out what motivates the man to abandon his straight-laced life. It’s fairly obvious that he’s fed up with the red tape that goes along with being a cop, but that’s really not enough to convince us that he’d be willing to sacrifice his freedom (not to mention his relationship with his wife, played by Deborah Kara Unger). But beyond that, aside from an atypical setting, the movie eventually becomes just another standard movie about a bunch of quirky and likeable criminals. But the movie remains semi-watchable if only for Jane’s incredibly charismatic performance, though his South African accent does take a while to get used to.

** out of ****