Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett and Troy Garrity. Rated M.

This one was recommended to me by a good friend and movie buff. I had already filed it in the memory bank as a possible winner - the poster caught my eye and I do like Bruce Willis and Billy Bob anyway - so the recommendation clinched it.

So, off I pop to my local cineplex.

As it turned out, the description my mate gave me - very funny and very clever - wasn't holding true in the early stages.

I said to myself, "Self, if this doesn't pull its socks up soon, I'm going home cranky tonight."

That's not to say that I wasn't enjoying it, mind you, but it was a little disappointing to not get what I was expecting.

But I was enjoying the overall ambiance of the flick as it meandered along in its own quiet little armed robbery way.

I would seek to describe Bandits (no offence to my bestest mate Geoff) as a quiet, sleepy little movie of no great moment, brilliantly acted and heartwarmingly humourous, a unique tale with shades of Paint Your Wagon and Bonnie and Clyde.

WHAT? I hear you quip. Has the Big Git finally tripped out on shamrocks or something?

Let me explain a little.

Joe (Willis) and Terry (Thornton) escape from a federal pen on board a cement truck and, in an effort to raise funds for a comfortable financial future, they naturally and quickly enter the lucrative bank-robbing business.

All is going smoothly until they kidnap dizzy housewife Kate (Blanchett) or maybe I should say she kidnaps them.

Bored with her perfect life as a housewife, she grasps the opportunity for adventure and danger with both hands.

But as the old saying goes - two is company, three is a crime…

Falling for the strong, handsome Joe, Kate slides into the gang without too much trouble.

Trouble starts, however, when she then falls for the hypochondriac Terry.

Choosing between the two is impossible and so the tri-partied relationship and the gang fall on tough times.

Obviously I can only convey the bare bones of the story in this small space.

It's up to the acting ensemble to deliver the full story and all its nuances.

Suffice it to say that this is done brilliantly by this cast.

The chemistry of the three-way relationship really came off as it was delivered with great emotion and humour by all concerned.

The three-way relationship explains the Paint Your Wagon reference (Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg, 1969), but what about the Bonnie and Clyde (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, 1967) link?

Bank robbing is the obvious connection -- but remember how it all ended…

A hail of bullets as I recall.

A small aside - Billy Bob Thornton had a smallish and barely recognisable role was in the very first movie I reviewed more than four years and almost 100 movies ago - U Turn