Dir. Brett Ratner, 2004, US, 95 mins
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson It's a tough old life for the cast and crew of a Hollywood movie. Forced to film day after day on the sun-kissed beaches of the Bahamas while poor Pierce has to gaze longingly at the luscious Salma in a bikini, as Woody enjoys a plush hotel suite and all the benefits it entails. The A-listers sink all too easily into island life, listlessly pondering a diamond heist while the audience are lulled into a 90-minute tourist brochure. Releasing the movie as the nights draw in seems to have been something of a marketing masterstroke, but in the cold reality of a drizzly UK evening does Brosnan prove there's life after Bond? Well he hasn't drifted too far, same suave sophistication, just to the other side of the law. Slipping back into the wily brain of Thomas Crown, Brosnan plays Max Burdett an ice cool jewel thief with the cars, women and gadgets of 007, only he has more time to indulge. His partner, in both meanings of the word, is the vivacious Lola (Hayek) and after the fateful 'one last job' they retire to an island paradise to spend their ill-gotten gains on legitimate vices. While Lola busies herself with enjoying the high life Max quickly develops an itch. Old adversary, FBI agent Stan (Harrelson), is only too happy to scratch it when he informs Max that a nearby cruise liner carries a rather tempting cargo. Throw in local law enforcement in the form of young upstart Sophie (Naomie Harris) and metaphysical gangster king-pin Moree (Don Cheadle), and you've got quite the crime caper as all sides become entangled around a singular goal. From a promising start we expect clever bluffs and double bluffs but Harrelson soon evaporates any future interest, stating he doesn't like movies with twist endings during a conversation about Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief . Composer Lalo Schiffrin gives up trying to infuse a movie where people sit around drinking cocktails housing ridiculous umbrellas with the same funk he gave cat and mouse thrillers like Bullitt. While director Ratner settles on recreating the buddy-buddy laughs from Rush Hour but none of the blistering action. The chemistry between Brosnan and Harrelson means time passes enjoyably as the two share playful banter, and the odd bed in a strictly Morecambe and Wise sense. This is Harrelson at his wild and crazy best but Brosnan seems worryingly comfortable in retirement, decidedly plump on all that red lobster. As with De Niro's aging cat burglar in The Score, it's down to a buff stuntman in a mask to step in when things get more dangerous than smoking a cigar. Sparky dialogue, and enough gratuitous shots of Hayek to fill a satisfying unofficial fan site, means After the Sunset is a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of most movies. It's no Ocean's 11 , even Wallace and Gromit pulled off a more fiendish diamond snatch, and don't expect a big payoff or even a point to the whole endeavour, but a few postcard moments are on hand to light up the grey, winter days. Richard Badley
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