Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Steineded How sad is this?

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Wuchak Released in 2003, "Stander" is based on the true story of Andre Stander, a police captain in South Africa turned bank robber in the late 70s/early 80's, dubbed a modern-day Robin Hood by the media. Thomas Jane stars in the title role while Dexter Fletcher and David O'Hara play his partners. Deborah Kara Unger is on hand as his wife while Melanie Merle plays the girlfriend of one of the gang members. Marius Weyers also appears as Stander's father.While this is based on a true story, people dispute parts of it, like the idea that Stander occasionally gave some of the loot to impoverished black people and the idea that his disillusionment and fall into crime stemmed from an incident where he and other officers shot and killed over twenty unarmed black residents of Thembisa during the 1976 Soweto uprising. Nevertheless, the gist of the story is true and the depiction of apartheid-era South Africa is interesting. Moreover, the news media did indeed portray Stander as a modern-day Robin Hood and so the movie reflects this element and I wouldn't be surprised if he really did give some cash to blacks on a few occasions.The score by The Free Association (aka David Holmes) is odd, but I suppose the filmmakers wanted something that would mesh with the time period and location. While this is a crime thriller, it's generally realistic and lacks the eye-rolling action sequences of conventional Hollywood thrillers. There's action, of course, but it's believable and mixed with the drama of the real-life players and events.The movie runs 116 minutes and was shot in South Africa.GRADE: B

Tom Dooley Andre Stander was a happily married Captain in the South African Police during the dark days of apartheid. He worked at a time when it was compulsory to do 'riot duty' in the township ghettos, this is covered in the film. Then he decided one day to rob a bank and by all accounts he ruddy well loved it. He went on a massive crime spree – but it was not too long before his erstwhile colleagues caught him – but the adventure was not about to end because of a pesky prison sentence – this purports to tell his story.Now I say purports because there has been a bit of licence taken with his actual story, which was obviously a deliberate choice of the film makers, but if this whets your appetite then do check him out further. Portrayed as a frustrated Robin Hood sometimes, and a clear career criminal at others he appears to have been someone that was hard to define in any neat way. The film though is really well made with great period detail and some fine performances and indeed accents – Thomas Jane as Stander shows what an impressive actor he can be and why he should get better gigs. Ably supported by Dexter Fletcher and Deborah Kara Unger as Stander's wife Bekkie; this is for those who like a bit of a thriller and a bit of realism thrown into the mix – one I missed first time round and am glad I finally got to see it.

David Joffe I grew up in Pretoria in the 70s and 80s during Apartheid, and the way Bronwen Hughes has managed to reconstruct, capture and convey the overall "feel" of the time is nothing short of remarkable - this movie practically transported me back to my childhood. Her achievement is particularly impressive given she is Canadian - her achievement here warrants more praise, and it is a bit sad that the average non-South-African viewer would never truly be able to appreciate just what she has managed to pull off here.Thomas Jane's South African accent is by far the best I've seen in a movie.

nethlyn I rented this when I was in Ireland for a long weekend and it is criminal, if you'll pardon the pun, that it was not given a proper cinema release in the UK in the summer of 2005 - it got four non-sequential weeks, one of which was in a city-centre London theatre and the others were in the Midlands. Basically someone pulled the plug on it when there was NOTHING to watch in July 2005 and this would definitely have found an audience against the Fantastic Four - even so, I didn't realise it was two years old and and seems to have had some kind of exclusivity period in its native South Africa where it did get a proper release.Knowing this is a real person he's playing, Thomas Jane does a top notch job with both of his south African accents (one Afrikaans, one Zulu), in fact all the non-SA actors do. It's a true story and you may know what happened but that doesn't come close to telling you how well-written, well-directed, well-researched, well-soundtracked, good-looking and well-lit, funny yet tragic this film is. I forgot that Dexter Fletcher was in it, but he's also excellent as the comic relief and it's another top notch project following on from his appearance in UK film Layer Cake at the end of last year, so any British fans of his won't be disappointed. I guess if you wanted comparisons, you would have to combine the original Thomas Crown Affair with Catch Me If You Can and elements of Heat, throwing in some 70s car chases from other classic flicks - and the scenes in all of those films where you are thinking "did this really happen", you will watch Stander and say "My God he really did do that!"The film is excellent, and I'll be buying it as a present for people whenever I can in addition to my own copy, it's terrific and needs support. It did get a release in South Africa though, quite appropriately, but when you see it, you'll see why it should have been released in the UK in July. It'll be a great rental on a Saturday night but since I've been unable to find a soundtrack, this means I will just buy the film so I can watch it a third time. You won't regret it.