Band of Robbers

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Band of Robbers
Theatrical poster for the movie "Band of Robbers".jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Aaron Nee
Adam Nee
Written by
  • Aaron Nee
  • Adam Nee
Based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyNoah Rosenthal
Edited by
  • Aaron Nee
  • Adam Nee
Music by Joel P. West
Production
company
Torn Sky Entertainment
Distributed by Gravitas Ventures
Release dates
  • June 13, 2015 (2015-06-13)(LA Film Festival)
  • January 15, 2016 (2016-01-15)(United States)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$20,555 [1]

Band of Robbers is a 2015 American crime comedy film written and directed by brothers Aaron and Adam Nee, based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . It stars Kyle Gallner as Huck Finn and Adam Nee as Tom Sawyer. Matthew Gray Gubler, Melissa Benoist, Daniel Edward Mora, Eric Christian Olsen, Hannibal Buress, and Stephen Lang also star.

Contents

In this modern-day retelling, the two iconic rascals are grown up and small-time crooks still searching for the fabled Murrell's treasure that has eluded them since childhood. The story draws heavily from Twain's classic novels, including characters, plot twists and even dialogue.

Band of Robbers premiered at the 2015 LA Film Festival, and received a limited theatrical release in the United States on January 15, 2016, by Gravitas Ventures.

Plot

When Huck Finn is released from jail he is greeted by his lifelong friend, Tom Sawyer, now an underachieving cop who just can't let go of their childhood dreams of wealth and glory. Tom convinces the reluctant Huck and their bumbling friends Joe Harper and Ben Rogers to rob a pawnshop where their friend and contact, the alcoholic vagrant Muff Potter, believes Injun Joe, a savage and murderous white career criminal who admires and appropriates Native American culture, has hidden Murrell's treasure. Tom explains that robbing bad guys makes them the good guys. Things get complicated when Tom's commander assigns him to train Becky Thatcher, an eager-to-please rookie partner, and the hung-over band of robbers' heist goes awry. But that doesn't stop Tom; instead, he leads the band on a wild treasure hunt from one mysterious clue to another. When Huck's friend, Mexican day laborer Jorge Jimenez, is mistaken as part of the band's activities and arrested, Huck and Tom, on the run from a vengeful Injun Joe and the police, lead the band on a mission to rescue him and be "heroes".

Cast

Release

The world premiere of Band of Robbers was held at the 2015 LA Film Festival on June 13, 2015. [2] [3] The film was picked up for distribution by Gravitas Ventures, and had a limited release on January 15, 2016 in theaters in 11 cities. [4]

Reception

Band of Robbers received generally positive reviews from The New York Times , [5] Variety , [6] and The Cleveland Plain Dealer . [7] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.51/10. [8] It has drawn comparisons to the films of Wes Anderson, particularly Bottle Rocket , and the Coen brothers. [9]

It won the Director's Choice Award at the Naples International Film Festival. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i> 1885 novel by Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.

<i>Tom and Huck</i> 1995 American film

Tom and Huck is a 1995 American adventure comedy-drama film based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Mike McShane, Eric Schweig, and Amy Wright. The film was directed by Peter Hewitt and produced/co-written by Stephen Sommers. The movie was released in North America on December 22, 1995.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (2000 film) 2000 American film

Tom Sawyer is a 2000 American animated musical comedy film directed by Paul Sabella and Phil Mendez. Released direct-to-video on April 4, 2000, the film was produced by MGM Animation. It is an adaptation of Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with a cast of anthropomorphic animals instead of humans. Most of the characters' voices are generally performed by country music singers.

<i>Huckleberry Finn and His Friends</i> 1979 television series

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends is a 1979 television series documenting the exploits of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, based on the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by American writer Mark Twain. The series consists of 26 episodes and was a Canadian/West German international co-production.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (1973 film) 1973 film directed by Don Taylor

Tom Sawyer is the 1973 American musical film adaptation of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and was directed by Don Taylor. The film was produced by Reader's Digest in collaboration with Arthur P. Jacobs, and its screenplay and songs were written by both Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.

<i>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</i> (musical) Musical by Don Schlitz

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a musical comedy based on the 1876 novel by Mark Twain conceived and written by Ken Ludwig, with music and lyrics by Don Schlitz. The musical is the story of a fourteen-year-old boy growing up in the heartland of America. This Broadway musical version of Mark Twain's novel is set in 1840 in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a bustling town on the banks of the Mississippi River. In the course of the story, Tom matches wits with his stern Aunt Polly, falls in love with the beautiful, feisty Becky Thatcher, and goes on the adventure of his life with Becky and Huckleberry Finn. Along the way he meets a terrifying villain named Injun Joe, Tom's bratty half-brother Sid, and all the other boys and girls in the village.

<i>The Adventures of Mark Twain</i> (1985 film) 1985 film

The Adventures of Mark Twain, also known as Comet Quest in the United Kingdom, is a 1985 American independent stop-motion claymation fantasy film directed by Will Vinton and starring James Whitmore. It received a limited theatrical release in May 1985 and was released on DVD in January 2006 and again as a collector's edition in 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (1917 film) 1917 comedy-drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor

Tom Sawyer is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama/adventure film starring Jack Pickford, Robert Gordon, and Clara Horton; it is based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Directed by William Desmond Taylor, the film was released by Paramount Pictures.

<i>The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i> Television series

The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American live-action and animated fantasy television series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1968, through February 23, 1969. Produced by Hanna-Barbera and based on the classic Mark Twain characters, the program starred its three live-action heroes, Huck Finn, Becky Thatcher, and Tom Sawyer, navigating weekly adventures within an animated world as they attempted to outrun a vengeful "Injun Joe". After the show's original run, the series continued to air in reruns as part of The Banana Splits and Friends Show syndication package.

<i>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</i> (1938 film) 1938 American film directed by Norman Taurog

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a 1938 American drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Norman Taurog who had previously directed Huckleberry Finn (1931) with Jackie Coogan and Junior Durkin. The film starred Tommy Kelly in the title role, with Jackie Moran and Ann Gillis. The screenplay by John V. A. Weaver was based on the classic 1876 novel of the same name by Mark Twain. The movie was the first film version of the novel to be made in color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huckleberry Finn</span> Fictional character

Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain who first appeared in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). He is 12 to 13 years old during the former and a year older at the time of the latter. Huck also narrates Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective, two shorter sequels to the first two books.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

Tom Sawyer is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Jackie Coogan. The screenplay by Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, and Sam Mintz is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

<i>Huck and Tom</i> 1918 film by William Desmond Taylor

Huck and Tom is a surviving American comedy-drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor and released in 1918. The scenario by Julia Crawford Ivers is derived from Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Robert Gordon and Jack Pickford reprise the title roles from the 1917 version of Tom Sawyer, a successful adaptation that was also directed by Taylor.

<i>Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn</i> 2014 American film

Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn is a 2014 American comedy-drama/adventure film directed by Jo Kastner and starring Joel Courtney as Tom Sawyer, Jake T. Austin as Huckleberry Finn, Katherine McNamara as Becky Thatcher, Noah Munck as Ben Rogers, and with Val Kilmer as Mark Twain. It is based on Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). The film was released by VMI Worldwide.

<i>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</i> 1876 novel by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a boy, Tom Sawyer, growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the town of St. Petersburg, which is based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel, Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime. Though overshadowed by its 1884 sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the book is considered by many to be a masterpiece of American literature. It is alleged by Mark Twain to be one of the first novels to be written on a typewriter.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (album) 1976 studio album by Bing Crosby

Tom Sawyer is a 3-LP box set containing a reading by Bing Crosby of an abridged version of Mark Twain’s classic story The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It was recorded for Argo Records (UK) on September 3 and 5, 1975 at Argo Studios, 115 Fulham Road, London.

Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is a 1982 American made-for-television adventure film originally broadcast February 27, 1982 on CBS as the TV Movie of the Week. CBS financed the film with a $2.2 million budget and the working title was The Further Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The film was shot on location in Natchez, Mississippi in the fall of 1981 where the filmmakers added dirt to the street of the historic town. The movie features early roles for Cynthia Nixon and Anthony Michael Hall. It was the first major role for then-child actor and future award-winning filmmaker Patrick Creadon, who starred as Tom. The teleplay was written by Carlos Davis and David Taylor. It was directed by Dick Lowry and produced by his brother Hunt Lowry.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a 1955 CBS TV film adaptation of Mark Twain's 1884 novel of the same name, starring Charles Taylor in the title role. It was directed by Herbert B. Swope Jr. It aired on September 1, 1955 as the Season 2 premiere of the anthology program Climax!.

<i>Tom Sawyer</i> (1956 musical) 1956 American film

Tom Sawyer was a one-hour musical by Frank Luther, originally created for the television series The U.S. Steel Hour. It was broadcast live on CBS November 21, 1956, and marked the first time the anthology series had presented a musical. Luther said the show evolved from his re-reading of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer a few years earlier: "(W)henever an incident or character gave me an idea for a song, I'd write the music and words," Luther told an interviewer in 1957. "By the time I'd reached the end of the book, I found I had written 32 songs. The cast included John Sharpe as Tom Sawyer, Jimmy Boyd as Huckleberry Finn, Bennye Gatteys as Becky Thatcher, Rose Bampton as Aunt Polly, Matt Mattox as Injun Joe and Clarence Cooper as Jim the Narrator. A cast album was released on Decca Records shortly after the broadcast, featuring several songs omitted from the original show. The show's sets and backgrounds were designed by Thomas Hart Benton. At the time of the broadcast, Sharpe was performing in the Broadway cast of The Most Happy Fella. Luther was commissioned to follow up the show with a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, also starring Boyd, which was broadcast on The U.S. Steel Hour November 22, 1957. There does not appear to be any existing film or kinescope of either broadcast. There is a recording of the original broadcast audio in the New York Public Library's Toscanini Legacy Collection of Sound Recordings.

References

  1. "Band of Robbers (2016)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  2. Kilday, Gregg (May 5, 2015). "Los Angeles Film Festival Unveils Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  3. Patten, Dominic (June 1, 2015). "'Band Of Robbers' LA Film Festival Trailer: 'Supergirl's Melissa Benoist In Grown-Up Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Pic". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  4. Brooks, Brian (January 17, 2016). "Oscar Nominees 'Brooklyn,' 'Room,' 'Spotlight' Jump; 'Lady In The Van' Solid – Specialty B.O." Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  5. Holden, Stephen (January 14, 2016). "Review: 'Band of Robbers' Riffs on Mark Twain Characters in Today's Missouri". The New York Times . Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  6. Leydon, Joe (January 16, 2016). "Film Review: 'Band of Robbers'". Variety . Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  7. Connors, Joanna (January 14, 2016). "'Band of Robbers' review: Clever modern twist on Mark Twain is comedy treasure". cleveland.com. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  8. "Band Of Robbers (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  9. "Review: Band of Robbers". JoBlo. The JoBlo Network. January 14, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  10. "2015 Festival Winners". Naples International Film Festival. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2019.