The Hard Easy—Review

The Hard Easy is a direct-to-DVD movie starring David Boreanaz, which was released this week. Of course I had my copy preordered, just waiting for the long weekend so I could pop it in and watch it in a leisurely fashion. Well, as much of a leisurely fashion as I can manage, anyway.

The plot goes thusly: Down on his luck gambler Paul (Henry Thomas) needs money--a lot of it--because, well, he's down on his luck, and owes people a ton of money. Stockbroker Roger (David Boreanaz) needs money--a lot of it--because a scheme concocted by his marginally insane boss Buckaroo Banzai Ed (Peter Weller) went sideways. Both of them end up involved in a plan to rob a jewelry store of a shipment of diamonds. Unfortunately, it's the same jewelry store, and the same diamonds. Hilarity Chaos ensues.

In spite of a few rather annoying (and unsuccessful) attempts to make itself look like a Guy Ritchie movie, The Hard Easy is a fairly solid caper movie, with plenty of plot twists, most of which actually even make sense--always a plus. The last act is almost absurdly violent, although that's pretty common for this type of movie, but it never quite veers dark enough to jar the slightly smirky tone established from the beginning. Overall, not a bad movie, and well worth a watch.

For Boreanaz fans, there's a long expository scene between Boreanaz and Peter Weller which is conducted with Boreanaz shirtless throughout for no really good reason. Kudos to the screenwriters for gratuitous Boreanaz shirtlessness. It makes any movie better.

Rated R for pervasive naughty words and lots of people getting shot.

Also starring Vera Farmiga, Bruce Dern, Nick Lachey and Gary Busey.