DVD Scorched

The local branch of a bank in a small town has three tellers. First is Stuart. He's a little nervous, and he's always telling his best friend, Max, why Max's hair brained make money fast schemes won't work. Then there's Jason, an ecologically minded desert dweller, who lives with a duck. And last is Sheila, who moved out with her boyfriend. The boyfriend is the bank manager, Rick.

In addition to the three bank tellers and the bank manager, there's Carter and Shmally, Mark, and Cherchant. Carter has motivational problems and Schmally has trouble sorting out the fantasies of her D&D character and her real life. Mark's a firefighter and kind of love interest to Sheila. And Charles Merchant is the zany millionaire who sells his tapes on how to get rich through real estate.

The three tellers are less than pleased with their jobs, and all three decide to rob the bank. However, no one mentions their plan to anyone else, and they all pick the same weekend to do it. Stuart's plan is simple; he can grab a set of keys that will let him get into the mini vault behind the teller's bench, which contains about $250,000. He plans on grabbing it Friday, leaving for Vegas that night, and betting it all on black on the roulette table. If he wins, he puts it back. If he loses, he becomes a criminal.

Jason's plan is a little more devious. As the assistant manager (with a whopping 55 cents an hour raise), he has one of the two the keys needed to get into a Safe Deposit Box. Charles Merchant keeps a large amount of money in his, and his fuzzy dog keeps the key hidden in its collar. Jason plans to snag the key off the dog, use his door key to get into the bank when it's closed on Sunday, and take Merchant's money. Part of it is a payback on Merchant, who shot and killed his duck's mother.

Sheila plans to not only rob the bank, but get Rick, the manager fired. It turns out she'd spent all her money to send him to college and hire him a tutor, and now he's dating the tutor and has dumped her. She makes a copy of the key that protects the room behind the ATMs and is going to steal the $40,000 in each of the ATMs. Hackers once got in and through the codes and cleaned the ATM's out that way, and if it happens again Rick gets fired.

The movie isn't bad, although I did have a couple questions. First, why did Rachael Leigh Cook get billing with Silverstone, Cleese, and Harrelson? She only has a bit part. Paul Costanzo should have gotten top billing, as he's one of the three tellers. I can only guess that he's not a big enough star. My other question is a rather obvious plot hole. Shiela's plan is to steal the money out of the ATM's and have it blamed on hackers. In the opening scene it's obvious both of them are in the lobby of the building. If the bank is closed on Sunday, and there's no sign of forced entry, how would hackers break into the ATM's and get the money out of the lobby? It's not like they could just transfer it, the physical money would still be there. Sheila used her keys to get into the bank, so the lobby wasn't left open for customers.

The movie is really quite funny, with all the characters running into each other and getting tied into the plot in varying ways. It's almost slapstick the way things work out, and the ending has you cheering for the three bank robbers. It has some questions and plot holes, but if you want something fun it's worth renting, or possibly buying.