Frank Oz: The Score

Director – Frank Oz

Writers – Daniel E. Taylor, Kario Salem, Lem Dobbs, Scott Marshall Smith

An aging thief hopes to retire and live off his ill-gotten wealth when a young kid convinces him to doing one last heist. –IMDB.com

Cast                                                  Character

Robert De Niro            …                Nick Wells

Edward Norton             …               Jack Teller

Marlon Brando            …                Max

Angela Bassett             …                Diane

Gary Farmer                …                Burt

Paul Soles                    …                Danny

Jamie Harrold               …                Steven

This review contains spoilers

Nick is a professional thief, one who has built his jazz bar from the heists he has done and the fortunes he has stole. He cracks a safe and when a couple walks in to the room he hides. He doesn’t act like a thug and try to kill them. The girl smokes a joint and the guy leaves. He tells her to not turn around by covering her mouth so she won’t scream. It’s a close call. He takes the loot and leaves.

Max proposes a score of 4 million dollars for a scepter from Europe. It is being held in the Montreal Customs House.

Nick’s girlfriend is Diane, played by Angela Bassett who was great in the movie Strange Days which I recommend. Nick asks her how she would feel if he were around more/gave up his criminal lifestyle. He is basically proposing marriage to her. She says she would have to give it serious thought.

Jack admits coming to Nick on the street as a retarded man was a stupid move. He convinces Nick to consider the heist for the scepter. Nick cases the Custom’s House. Nick talks to Max and demands 6 million instead of 4 for the scepter.

Nick goes underground under the Customs House. He uses what I believe is called a fiberscope to look into the room above. Later Diane says she will commit to marry Nick if he will give up his criminal life. He says he has one last job and she is angry.

Nick uses an inside guy who is a computer geek who needs $50,000 to pay off another IT guy for computer codes to bypass security at the Customs House. Steven gets and confirms the codes for Ironclad Security. Jack relays the code to Nick who tells Steven the codes He confirms they are good.

Jack/Brian does his job as a janitor. Jack does some electronics trickery, inserts the codes to bypass security. Nick sets up and tangles from the roof. Jack manipulates Nick by saying he’s got company when he doesn’t. He is mad that Nick doesn’t respect him and sees right through him. Jack cuts the cameras and Nick begins to crack the safe. The way he does it is pretty cool. He cannot drill the safe because a glass part in the door will shatter and permanently lock the safe. He uses a blowtorch to open a hole on the top part of the safe. He fills it with water and uses a bomb to explode open the door to the safe. He takes the scepter, which is worth 30 million dollars.

Jack pulls a gun on Nick and believes he has stolen the scepter when he has stolen a worthless imitation. Jack sets him up and tries to have him captured on camera. They go their separate ways escaping the Customs House. Nick reveals to Jack he’s got nothing. Jack looks in his case to see it’s a fake scepter and Nick got the real one. Nick reunites with Diane.