Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
alexanderdavies-99382
I had fairly high hopes for this film. A combination like Sean Connery and Sidney Lumet has paved the way for classics like "The Hill" and "The Offence."
Sadly, "The Anderson Tapes" isn't one of them. The potential is there as the plot is a pretty good idea. It tends to become somewhat pointless in the end, given that the gang of robbers are having every single move watched by the police and the government. You just know that the film is going to finish on a downbeat note and sure enough, it does.
For the first time in his career, Sean Connery appears without wearing a toupee and this natural look suits him.
Lumet's direction is wasted as it is defeated by an ordinary screenplay and a distinct lack of suspense or thrills.
This is only for devoted fans of Sean Connery.
sol-
Upon release from prison, a criminal mastermind plots a heist on an entire apartment building complex while his conversations (and the conversations of his associates) are secretly recorded by various agencies in this daringly different crime cape starring Sean Connery. Directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Frank Pierson, the film is often as intense as their famous latter collaboration, 'Dog Day Afternoon', though the film that 'The Anderson Tapes' most feels like a precursor for is Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Conversation'. The use of distorted audio effects very much enhances the monitored conversations subplot and the music score from Quincy Jones even sound like audio effects at times. Despite all this promise, 'The Anderson Tapes' has never quite gained the same following as 'The Conversation'... with good reason. Connery's protagonist is only very loosely fleshed out the exact nature of his relationship to Dyan Cannon's female lead is always a little hazy. Where the film trips up the most though is in balancing the conversations being monitored and the heist itself; the audio recordings seems almost entirely forgotten about in the final third of the movie - though the subplot does admittedly conclude rather potently as it reemerges in the final few minutes. Whatever the case, the heist itself is quite nifty and the victims are everything but passive in the best possible way - not afraid to talk back to the robbers. Margaret Hamilton is especially memorable in what would end up being her last on-screen performance.
astacvi-1
There's a reasonably interesting heist movie in here, and some understated commentary on our surveillance society (particularly relevant as I write this in the summer of 2013.) Unfortunately, they are mismatched parts that never quite come together into one film.Sean Connery was clearly trying to escape the penumbra of James Bond here, playing a much coarser character and working without toupee. He's actually pretty good, with the exception of the dreadful accent he attempts. It's a bizarre Brooklyn/Scottish hybrid, and come to think of it, sort of fitting for this movie: two things that don't really mesh but are jammed together anyway.Martin Balsam and an extremely young Christopher Walken are the standouts among the supporting cast. Balsam seems to have somehow channeled Harvey Fierstein from the future, almost but never quite going over the top. Walken is mesmerizing in a very small role, showing even at his young age the physical grace and edgy unpredictability that would come to define him.I must make special mention of the dreadful score. It's distracting and awful, almost certainly the lowlight of Quincy Jones's career.Ultimately, and unfortunately, this film just doesn't quite work. It can't seem to decide what it wants to be. It's kind of funny, kind of suspenseful, kind of socially critical, kind of dramatic, but in the end not really anything very specific. I can usually decipher what a movie has attempted, even if it fails, but in this case I just don't know. It's a confusing, strange melange of recognizable parts that never form a consistent whole.
Tweekums
Having finished with James Bond Sean Connery plays a very different character here; he is John 'Duke' Anderson a burglar who upon being released from prison decides to burgle the apartment block where his girl friend lives; not just a single apartment; every single one! For this he will need a team; including a specialist driver, safe cracker and even somebody to reconnoitre the building before hand to identify everything of value. He will also need money for upfront expenses so approaches the Mob; they agree to finance the operation on condition that Anderson takes one of their men with him... and kills him! What he doesn't realise is that just about everybody he is dealing with is under some form of surveillance. Surprisingly the people listening in don't do anything with what they hear as none of them has the full picture and the robbery goes ahead as planned... well almost as planned; they didn't count on a disabled boy sending out a message on a ham radio so as the thieves work their way through the apartment the police prepare to make their move.This is very much a seventies movie with its jazz inspired music, strange electronic sounds and the sense that just about everybody is being spied on by somebody. Connery does a good job as Anderson; the film is also notable for the first film performance from Christopher Walken and the last film performance from Margaret Hamilton, best known as the Wicked Witch of the West from 'The Wizard of Oz'. The preparation for the robbery is never boring and when it actually goes ahead things get fairly exciting; especially when we know the cops are there in force but the robbers have no idea. The action, when it comes, is fairly low key which makes it more believable; no doubt if it was made today there would be shootouts with the cops and perhaps a few CGI explosions... thankfully that sort of thing didn't happen in thrillers then; keeping it real was more important than lots of excitement. This may not be a classic but it is still worth watching if you are a fan of any of the stars or enjoy crime capers.
