Dorr finds a house in the south owned by Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who has lost her husband and spends most of her time talking to her dead husband's photo, knitting, going to church and complaining to the local sheriffs about anything and everything.
Dorr is looking for a room to rent while on sabbatical, and finds Munson's house with a sign in the window with a room available.
Dorr uses his charm and intellect to get in good with Munson and lies to her about his intentions on his sabbatical - to practice with his band in her root cellar. While his true intentions are to use her cellar as a way to tunnel into a nearby underground vault.
Four others are part of Dorr's 'band', Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans), Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), The General (Tzi Ma) and Lump Hudson (Ryan Hurst).
MacSam is the inside man. He works on the casino boat in which the vault is fed. Pancake is the explosives 'expert' with I.B.S. The General runs the show, while Lump is the muscle - pure dumb muscle.
Usually I like ensemble casts coming together for a heist, but something must have really turned me off the first time I watched this. A lot of that may have come from Hanks' character. He just didn't seem to fit into this era - he was Col. Sanders mixed with William Shakespeare and, despite being in the south, just felt like he was out place.
After rewatching it, I may have liked it a little more. Still not much for Hanks' character - who was still out of place, but of course he still rocked it - but I enjoyed the other cast members. Simmons was great and I liked The General as well. Wayans was of course a bit over the top - and I have liked Hurst since Remember the Titans, and he played dumb pretty well here.
Not an amazing film, but better than I originally thought. Could have been a whole lot better though, in my opinion. One of the bottom-tiered Hanks films.
Grade:
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