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by Willie Waffle

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After The Sunset

After The Sunset is a movie more memorable for Salma Hayek in those bikinis than for the story. Forget that baloney about being a serious actress and trying to win an Oscar in Frida, Salma is showing off some serious, sexy skin in After The Sunset. Brosnan looks alright, too (if you're into that sort of thing).

Pierce Brosnan stars as Max - a suave, sophisticated, superstar jewel thief living the quiet retired life. After one last great heist, he moved with his fiancée and partner in crime, Lola (Salma "Bikini Babe" Hayek), to a tropical island in the Caribbean, where they enjoy the good life. However, Max is starting to get bored.

Their old nemesis, FBI agent Stan Lloyd (Woody Harrelson), has shown up on the island convinced Max and Lola are planning to steal a valuable diamond displayed on a cruise ship in port for its maiden voyage. This diamond is the last of the Napoleon diamonds, and the only of the three Napoleon diamonds Max and Lola have not stolen. Making the situation worse, the island's local crime boss, Henry Moore (Don Cheadle), is trying to convince Max to swipe the diamond, or else.

Is Max getting the itch to steal again? Is the retirement a big ruse?

After The Sunset isn't so much a caper movie, but more about relationships, which is its downfall. The script from Paul Zbyszewski and Craig Rosenberg is full of great moments between Lloyd and Max, as well as Max and Lola, but we didn't come to After The Sunset to see a romantic comedy or a buddy picture. Even Zbyszewski and Rosenberg can't fully commit to this path as they insert elements of a heist movie like the characters scoping out the diamond's location, a possible plan to snatch it and more, but the heist is secondary. That's a choice, but one to which they and director Brett Ratner don't fully commit. The two competing genres put together become a bit of a mess, with the relationship comedy not setting up the ending and possible heist well enough, and a few twists unfairly coming out of nowhere to fool the audience for the sake of fooling us, instead of letting us play along. Sadly, the bad script wastes some good acting performances.

Brosnan and Harrelson make a good pair, especially as Harrelson puts in one of his best performances in a long time. We know Brosnan can pull off the suave, sophisticated daredevil role, but it has been so long since we have seen a good role for Harrelson, we forgot about his ability (at least I did as he spends more time promoting hemp than acting these days). He shows some great comedic timing and a willingness to be foolish for a laugh, which is appreciated as Lloyd and Max are put in some unbelievable and stupid circumstances that are very funny. They make us believe the two rivals might have an ounce of admiration for each other, which makes the movie more enjoyable and could have led to a great twist instead of the lame one shown to us.

Hayek also shows her ability to charm as she takes the character and adds some spark instead of being JUST a bikini bimbo. She makes Lola smart, capable and Max's true equal, which makes the ultimate resolution between Lola and Max too stupid. We know Lola is smarter than what is presented.

After The Sunset is a disappointing movie that doesn't make it worth sitting through the fun stuff. We don't learn more about Max and what could have been a very interesting study of his need for the challenge. The script is sparse and over relies on Brosnan, Hayek and Harrelson to make the dialogue work, and, for all of the build up to something possibly unique and novel (an ending that would have been much cooler than what we get), After The Sunset devolves into a poorly developed and executed heist movie.

1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4)

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