Even though Hollywood may not be able to make high quality pictures constantly, it appears that they remember every once in a while how to make entertaining movies. “After the Sunset” is definitely not ‘high art’, and neither is it particularly original or politically correct. But “After the Sunset” is a reasonably funny and entertaining movie, providing a nice break amid all the Halloween gore fests and pre-Christmas movies. “After the Sunset” is all about Max Burdett (Pierce Brosnan), a jewel thief who has successfully outwitted the FBI, led by Special Agent Lloyd (Woody Harrelson), for years with the help of his girlfriend, Lola (Salma Hayek). Following the successful theft of the second Napoleon diamond, Max and Lola decide to retire to the Bahamas and live out the rest of their lives funded by the profits of all their heists. But their retirement is disturbed as Agent Lloyd tracks Max down thinking that another heist is on the way. Agent Lloyd’s biggest worry is that Max will attempt to steal the last Napoleon diamond, on display in a cruise ship that is docked at the island. The situation is made worse by the presence of a local gangster (Don Cheadle) who wants the diamond to fund his own paramilitary operations.
At first glance, the movie appears to be just a heist movie, a la “Ocean’s Eleven”, but the biggest problem is that it tries to adhere to closely to the plot of a heist movie while getting sidetracked by all the subplots along the way. Lola for instance, is only interested in Max finally proposing to her, there is a local cop who wants in Lloyd’s bust, and some ‘odd couple’ type bonding occurring between Max and Lloyd. The plot gets a little frayed after the first forty-five minutes, and seems to have trouble getting it’s footing again. And, it being a heist movie, there’s a twist ending that makes the whole movie seem like a set-up. Is this ending really the best one? Probably not, but given the plot and concept, there wasn’t much else to do, and it could have ended a whole lot worse.
The most entertaining part is watching the interaction between Harrelson and Brosnan. Despite some blatant homosexual jabs, the scenes where it’s just them are just plain funny. There’s also some poignant dialogue about ‘sunset’ people, but some real interesting ideas about the meaning of ‘The Mamas and the Papas’ song lyrics. “After the Sunset” asks the viewer to take some awful big spoonfuls of scenes on faith (heist movie!) but keeps on flowing with the punches regardless. Provided you can roll with the punches as well, you’ll probably find this movie pretty enjoyable.
