Plot
Chris is a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank, where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist.

Release Year: 2007

Rating: 7.2/10 (31,437 voted)

Critic's Score: 73/100

Director: Scott Frank

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode

Storyline
An admired high school hockey player with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girlfriend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme...

Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Chris Pratt
Jeff Daniels - Lewis
Matthew Goode - Gary Spargo
Isla Fisher - Luvlee
Carla Gugino - Janet
Bruce McGill - Robert Pratt
Alberta Watson - Barbara Pratt
Alex Borstein - Mrs. Lange
Sergio Di Zio - Deputy Ted
David Huband - Mr. Tuttle
Laura Vandervoort - Kelly
Greg Dunham - Bone
Morgan Kelly - Marty
Aaron Berg - Cork
Tinsel Korey - Maura

Taglines: Whoever has the money has the power

Official Website: Official site | Official site |

Release Date: 30 March 2007

Filming Locations: Hartney, Manitoba, Canada

Box Office Details

Budget: $16,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $2,017,795 (USA) (1 April 2007) (955 Screens)

Gross: $4,646,830 (Worldwide) (14 June 2007)

Runtime: 99 min

Trivia:
Sam Mendes and then David Fincher were attached to direct. Once Fincher left the project, writer Scott Frank decided to direct himself.

Goofs:
Continuity: If you look at the Jetta that Chris drives, you will notice that the amount of damage to the bug-deflector on the front of his car changes almost every time we see the vehicle. It starts off with the left side of the bug deflector missing, then both sides are missing and finally it goes back to just the left side missing.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Chris Pratt: It only happens once a year, and then they die. It's like a mating ritual or something.
Kelly: Isn't that romantic?

The Lookout delivers.

Rating: 9/10

I had a conversation with a friend earlier this week, regarding the lack of effort being put into films these days. In the 21st century, there are very few films worth seeing, in comparison to the earlier 80's, and 90's. Back then, there weren't 100's of movies being churned out a week, with only 1 or 2 being even half decent. This is the reason that this movie took me entirely by surprise.

The movie is centered around Chris Pratt ( Josepth Gordon-Levitt), a partially handicapped man, in his earlier 20's. Chris used to live a great life, have great friends, and amazing talent on the ice. Now, after a car accident that changed his life, he suffers from slight mental handicaps, although they are prominently random, and don't have a major effect on the movie. Chris is still recovering from his car crash, and trying to move up in his job. He works at "Noah's Central Bank" as a Janitor, but has been pushing to be a teller for ages. Desperate for companions, Chris jumps at the first person to befriend him, and slowly falls into the wrong crowd. As Chris gets deeper and deeper in with his group of friends, he's pressured to help them with a robbery. Only catch: The heist is taking place at his bank.

Although the movie seems pretty straightforward, the plot can be deceiving. First of all, if you are going to this movie expecting a movie based solely around a bank heist ( a la Inside Man), go to blockbusters and rent "Dog Day Afternoon". This movie focuses, for the most part, around Chris, and his decent from an innocent, hard working Janitor, to a confused, misled, and frustrated individual. Although not of the same Hollywood callibur as movies such as Inside Man, it is still easily worth the ticket. Which brings me to my next point.

After seeing this movie, I felt refreshed. I went into a movie, expecting explosions, poor dialogue, and close ups of bodies being blown away. I couldn't of been farther off. This movie veers away from Hollywood, and it pulls it off miraculously. The dialogue is crisp, the violence existing, but not overused, and the characters deep. I may only be so impressed by this movie because of what I was expecting, but I none the less recommend it to anyone willing to actually think during a movie, rather than watch a bunch of cars blow up.

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