The Real McCoy Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
20 guards. 30 tons of steel. A security system second to none. They said there wasn't a man on earth who could pull off a bank job like this. They were right.
Calm under pressure... Cool under fire.
A woman is released from prison, an expert bank robber who wants to settle down and go straight, but her parole officer and her former employer try to get her to pull one more heist.
| Kim Basinger | Karen McCoy |
| Val Kilmer | J.T. Barker |
| Terence Stamp | Jack Schmidt |
| Gailard Sartain | Gary Buckner |
| Raynor Scheine | Baker |
| Zach English | Patrick |
| Deborah Hobart | Cheryl Sweeney |
| Pamela Stubbart | Kelly |
| Andy Stahl | Mr. Kroll |
| Dean Rader-Duval | Lewis |
| Norman Maxwell | Hoke |
| Marc Macaulay | Karl |
| Peter Turner | Guard |
| Russell Mulcahy |
5.10 out of 10 (2463 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Not quite "Ocean's Eleven", but improves toward end
posted on 28 Sep 2007After an opening worthy of "Mission: Impossible", Karen McCoy ends up spending six years in prison. When she gets out, she finds out her ex Roy Sweeney has told her son Patrick that she is dead. Her parole officer Gary Buckner doesn't want her to succeed and is being very demanding. She can't seem to get a good job. Not only that, but Roy is having financial problems.And J.T. (who is working with Jack Schmidt) is a devoted fan who wants Karen to pull another bank job. Atlanta Union Bank is so secure no one can get in. But she can. Karen wants to go straight, but Schmidt is so determined to see her go back to crime that he threatens Karen's son Patrick, who knows Karen only as his mother's friend.How will Karen get out of this situation? I can say there is a bank robbery, and one with quite a bit of intelligent planning, deception and even humor, though not quite on a par with, say, "Ocean's Eleven". The question is: does Karen get involved, and if so, is she being honest with those involved in the bank job?Kim Basinger's character is quite good-looking but also very smart and able to get things done. Nick Searcy and Gailard Sartain could have traded roles, but I think the choices in casting them are ideal. Sartain has never been more convincing in a serious role that I have seen, even though he generally plays buffoons. Searcy has been the Frank Burns type in "Seven Days", so he could have easily done the sadistic parole officer (actually, he's more like Montgomery Burns), but I like him as the buffoon. Once Karen got out of prison, the movie started out slow but eventually ended up satisfying. You won't believe the ending!
I guess there is only one good reason to watch it: Kim Basinger
posted on 13 Sep 2007This is the sort of movie that will do if nothing else is on, but don't expect too much of it. I guess there is only one good reason to watch it and that is Kim Basinger. I really can't come up with something better.This is a typical Hollywood bank robbery movie. Nothing wrong with that when it is done right, but The Real McCoy never gets above the average in the genre. The characters as well as the script are average and very shallow. You never get rid of the feeling that you know what is going to happen ... only to see a few minutes later that your feeling didn't betray you.The bank robbery is perhaps the biggest disappointment. It's unbelievable how these top criminals always seem to know how to avoid every security system thanks to all the gadgets they use (they would make James Bond blush like a little school girl). And then of course we still have the security guards that look like a bunch of idiots that just want to be fooled. Spice this up with a love story that never really takes off and a lot of emotions about a little boy and you know what kind of movie this is.I just wasn't thrilled after seeing it. I reward it with a 5/10. It just isn't worth more. Too bad.
Pleasantly Surprising
posted on 22 Jan 2007I'm just a hair or two from labeling the effort above average, though this movie can still supply sufficient entertainment. Were this film to be remade today it would not need much to attain the status of Above Average. I would however abstain from casting the lead with anyone with similar physical attributes as Ms.Basinger only because to date who robs banks and looks like that!! Very "clean" by todays standards for most genre. Terry Stamp plays the villain with just a tad less venom than IS required for his role, he fall short of making me hate him enough, and Val Kilmer does a superb job with portraying his character. All in all absolutely worth the 1 hour & 45 minutes.
A Pretty Good Heist Caper - Basinger & Kilmer are Excellent
posted on 11 Dec 2006I watched this film last night on DVD. I was very surprised that this was actually quite good, due to the average IMDb rating it has received. Though not a classic, it is however a very competent Crime Caper. The story is not especially original and Terence Stamp's accent is not good, going between a Georgian (USA) accent and English Cockney accent. The opening is good and reminiscent of Mission Impossible though "The Real McCoy" was made three years earlier. Basinger's Character however has been set-up and is caught by Police. We then join Karen (The Real) McCoy (Kim Basinger) as she is leaving prison after serving a six year stretch, she is trying to go straight and just wants to see her son (In the film she has been in Athens Womens Correctional Facilty - Kim Basinger was actually born in the town of Athens, Georgia in real life). The relationship she has with her son is very realistic and touching as Karen values her son above everything else, now that she has served time. Her ex however has told her son that his mother is dead. Val Kilmer comes into the film as incompetent hold up artist J.T Barker, he attempts to hold up a Mini Mart but bungles the job. The ammo falls out of his gun and in one of the funny scenes in the film, he picks up the ammo only to be confronted by the Shopkeeper holding his own larger weapon. The shopkeeper asks "where do you want your new asshole". Kilmer has to hot foot it out of there and drive off quickly.JT Barker later runs into Karen McCoy noticing her as she leaves a meeting with her Parole Officer wondering who the gorgeous blonde is. When he finds out it emerges that he is a big fan of her work and asks about her previous jobs. Their relationship takes off later in the film after her son is captured and held by Villain Jack Schmidt (Terence Stamp). I will not go into much more detail in case I spoil it for you guys.I do however recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a Crime Caper. Please bear in mind this is not meant to be extremely intelligent or have Oscar winning performances. If you do not take the film 100% seriously and watch it for fun, it is good entertainment. It is slick, undemanding, enjoyable and the performances are good and believable (aside from Terence Stamp who is not quite ruthless enough and his accent is not quite right as I stated earlier) the set pieces are not outrageous but realistic and believable in the context of the film. It is also watchable as a family film as it is not violent and there is no sex scenes. 7/10
A good Pefromance from Basinger
posted on 21 Oct 2006They said there wasn't a man on earth who could pull off a bank job like this.They were right! After six long years in prison for a foiled bank robbery, legendary criminal Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger) wants nothing more than to turn her life around.But her hopes are soon shattered.No one will hire her.She's stuck with a sleazy parole officer, and her ex-husband has told their son thats she's dead.To make matters worse, crime lord Jack Schmidt (terrance Stamp) is forcing her to pull off a seemingly impossible $18 million bank job.With the full knowledge that once she hands over the cash, she's history.
Average heist movie
posted on 21 May 2006This is the sort of film that will do if nothing else is on but not much else. Its a heist film with Kim Basinger and Val Kilmer and everything in it has been done before and done better. The bank robbery at the end is a bit of a let down because it just seems too easy. It was directed by the man who brought us the fabulous Highlander, but sadly also the truly awful Highlander 2, this film is somewhere in between. The only plus points are the always great to look at Kim Basinger, and Val Kilmer in a different sort of role to his usual stuff. I think Kim Basinger is a great actress but like most females in Hollywood seems to struggle to get decent films to star in, not counting the awesome LA Confidential of course. All in all a very average film ***5/10***
Bank robber forced into another job to rescue son.
posted on 15 Dec 2004Not sure why this film gets trashed as much as it does, since it's pretty good. It's worth watching for the cast alone -- Basinger, Kilmer and Stamp. But it must be said that the British film upon which it's based is better. That would be Bellman and True (from an old English song) starring a cast of people that you probably never heard of, headlined by Bernard Hill as the computer geek who has to go along to keep his son safe. Bellman and True also serves as something of a time capsule, taking us back to a grotty, depressed and depressing London that is barely visible in British films any more. We can probably put the change in tone down to the Four Weddings effect. The comparison of these two movies serves as an excellent example of one of the more interesting questions of popular culture: why are the Brits generally so much better at movies that feature crime than Hollywood? Think of Cracker, State of Play, Prime Suspect, Behind The Lines, and Mobile.
Suspend reality! Fun! Fun! Fun!
posted on 06 Dec 2004The Real McCoy has one of the most impossible storylines around. But how can you not love a movie which contains the line, "What's not normal about getting on a plane with your mom and going down to Rio with 3 million dollars?" Some parts, especially the set-up, are slow, but on the whole it's a great, implausible romp. It's also a must for Kilmer and Basinger fans.
Somebody stole the final draft of the script
posted on 04 Oct 2004***SPOILER WARNING***`The Real McCoy' is a heist movie in which the heroine can work her way into and out of the most complicated of security devices but strangely enough can't seem to get out of a tired, predictable cliché-ridden script.It stars Kim Basinger as a burglar so good at her job that she has become famous as The Real McCoy. We meet her coming out of a six year prison term after being set up by Schmidt (Terence Stamp) one of those irritating movie villains who lives in a mansion and exists in the movie only to issue an ultimatum to the hero. Turns out that Schmidt was the one who set her up, after helping her to break into a bank and trapping her inside. He and her parole officer devise a little scheme to kidnap her son and hold him hostage until she pulls a major bank job for them. And yes, like countless career criminals in the movies, she wants to go straight.Here's where the movie loses me: The bank that Schmidt wants her to break into is the same bank that he trapped her in six years ago. Why did he go to the trouble of double-crossing her in the first place? Because the screenwriter doesn't think that the audience is smart enough to ask that question.The biggest disappointment to me is the bank vault itself, which is of course peanuts to this professional. I am always dazzled by overwrought security measures taken in the movies.
Look at the 150+ floors and 9 security doors that Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones had to go through to get into the bank vault in `Entrapment'. Or look at the security gates, the basement dwelling and the thick wall of plexiglass that held Hannibal Lecter in `The Silence of the Lambs'. The vault in this movie by comparison is a big yawn.Oh, and Val Kilmer shows up to befriend Basinger mostly because the filmmakers don't trust her to be the sole hero in a caper movie. Everyone in this movie right down to the kidnapped son is a chess piece set in place and then used as ordered by the rules of caper movie conventions.Rating: ** (of four)
Above Average Crime-Thriller
posted on 05 Jan 2008The plot is typical, yet the additional flair and direction along with the acting make this movie a captivating and entertaining fare. The interplay between mother and son is somewhat unusual, the double cross twists fun to experience. There is more going on in this movie than typical along with a well acting sinister bad buy played by Terence Stamp in one of the better character roles in movies. Val Kilmer and Kim Basinger do well. The little cute bits from Val Kilmer are a little too few and far between to make the movie consistent and when he does his little deal, its nice but somewhat out of character/place. The Kim Basinger character seems too good to be true and the husband and his her girlfriend are not used to the greatest effect. It's the probation officer that's the most curious and somewhat awkward piece in the movie. Seven out of Ten Stars.