Life of Crime [Blu-ray]

Director: Daniel Schechter

Overview

Two kidnappers (John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey) help a woman (Jennifer Aniston) take revenge on her wealthy, real estate developer husband after he refuses to pay her ransom in this adaptation of the Elmore Leonard book, Switch. Daniel Schechter directs from his own adapted script. The story features two of the same characters from the book that Jackie Brown was based on.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/28/2014
UPC:	0031398204749
Original Release:	2013
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONS GAT
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00
Sales rank:	29,322

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Audio commentary with director Daniel Schechter and actor Will Forte; Behind the scenes of Life Of Crime; Envisioning the big picture: shooting crime; Hit & run: choreographing mayhem

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jennifer Aniston	Mickey Dawson
Yasiin Bey	Ordell Robbie
Isla Fisher	Melanie
Will Forte	Marshall Taylor
Tim Robbins	Frank Dawson
John Hawkes	Louis Gara
Clea Lewis	Tyra Taylor
Charlie Tahan	Bo Dawson
Kevin Corrigan	Ray
Leonard Armond Robinson	Officer Dixon
Kevin Porter Young	Officer Kenny
Alex Ladove	Pamela Taylor
Jenna Nye	Shelly Taylor
Jill Abramovitz	Jan
Seana Kofoed	Kay
Florencia Lozano	Anjelica
Charles Saveur Bonan	Ray Shelby
Kofi Boakye	Cedric Walker
Chyna Layne	Loretta
R. Marcus Taylor	Borsalino
Nathan Purdee	Rodney the Doorman
Margaret Rossini	Mickey's Mother
Jennifer Prediger	Marshall's Assistant
Dennis Michael Hall	Restaurant Valet
Mark Boone Junior	Richard Monk

Technical Credits

Daniel Schechter

Elmore Leonard

Daniel Schechter	Screenwriter
Michael Siegel	Producer
Lee Stollman	Producer
Elizabeth Destro	Producer,Producer
Jordan Kessler	Producer
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein	Producer
Ashok Amritraj	Producer
Kim Leadford	Executive Producer
Jacob Pechenik	Executive Producer
Jim Garavente	Executive Producer
Charles Saveur Bonan	Executive Producer
Larry Ladove	Executive Producer
Bryan Mansour	Executive Producer
Jennifer Aniston	Executive Producer
Elmore Leonard	Executive Producer,Screenwriter,Producer
Christopher Herghelegiu	Executive Producer
Aleen Keshishian	Executive Producer
Stephanie Holbrook	Casting
Tod A. Maitland	Sound Mixer
Jeremy Selenfriend	Makeup Special Effects
Wen Hsuan Tseng	Sound Effects
Sean Garnhart	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Elmore Leonard's best books make for good movies because they are as much about characters and behavior as they are about plot. Put together a large, talented cast, provide something approximating his humorous dialogue, and you should end up with a totally enjoyable film. Daniel Schechter's Life of Crime, an adaptation of the Leonard novel The Switch, is a prime example. John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) play, respectively, Louis Gara and Ordell Robbie, a pair of criminal friends who plot to kidnap Mickey (Jennifer Aniston), the wife of an ethically dubious businessman named Frank (Tim Robbins), and ransom her for a million dollars. The plan starts to go wrong almost immediately when the initial abduction is interrupted by the arrival of Marshall (Will Forte), who wants Mickey to have an affair with him, and things get even worse when it turns out that Frank is ready to leave his wife for Melanie (Isla Fisher), with whom he is currently enjoying a sex-filled Florida vacation. When Frank delays in making the payment, Louis and Ordell try to figure out how to force his hand. However, Louis has grown sweet on their captive, while the duo's incredibly dumb neo-Nazi partner Richard (Mark Boone Jr.) seems more eager to kill Mickey -- he thinks she's Jewish -- than anything else. Schechter has done the necessary work to bring Leonard to the big screen: He's assembled a first-rate cast and written a script that keeps the twisty plot clear and the dialogue funny. Although he never reaches the poetic verbosity of Jackie Brown (which Quentin Tarantino adapted from Leonard's Rum Punch, and which also features the characters of Louis and Ordell) or the formal daring of Steven Soderbergh's take on Out of Sight, Schechter has fashioned a movie that leaves you feeling just as entertained as a book by Leonard would. Hawkes is first among equals as Louis. He never lets us forget the character's inherent scuzziness, even as he acts as gentlemanly as he can toward Mickey. Bey has always been a charismatic screen actor, and his take on Ordell is no exception; it's amazing how strongly he recalls Samuel L. Jackson's performance as the same character without ever seeming beholden to it. Isla Fisher is smart and sexy as the manipulative femme fatale, and Robbins makes Frank enjoyably hissable. Aniston is fine as the kidnapped woman ready to make a change in her life, but she's the only member of the cast who feels replaceable. Meanwhile, Mark Boone Jr. just about steals the movie as Richard, who's the quintessential mean and stupid Leonard bad guy -- early on, Ordell describes him as, "so dumb it's adorable." He's the kind of cretin you laugh at until he's suddenly a genuine threat, and Boone is perfect at both buffoonery and menace. Schechter's previous film, the micro-budgeted romantic comedy Supporting Characters, was a subtly original and charming take on a tired genre. Life of Crime doesn't have the thematic ambition of his earlier picture, but taken together, these two movies show that he's a talented director who is adept with actors, able to shape distinctive characters, and capable of making smart and funny films.