The Maiden Heist (2009)

Excellent but underrated film

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

All you need to know to watch this movie are the names of the four leads - Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman, William H Macy, and Marcia Gay Harden. Oscar winners playing against type in a comedy/caper where you feel good throughout the entire movie. This story's light fun with three bumbling, lovable security guards/would-be thieves who may/may not pull off the heist of the century - if they can ever stay out of each other's way! In this movie, Walken's a beaten down security guard nearing retirement with an overbearing but doting "battleship" of a wife in Marcia Gay Harden (wow, she is amazing in this role!!). Walken has been working the same job at a museum guarding the same wing for 30 years. In that wing is a painting, "The Lonely Maiden", in whom Walken has fallen in love. Not in a "Somewhere in Time" kinda time-travel piece, but just passionate about this lovely piece of impressionist art. She's the only reason he basically has left to live since his life has hit an endless loop of the same-ol'-same-ol'. Even his wife's incessant saving for a vacation trip to Florida isn't exciting for the poor guy. When he finds out the entire wing of the museum has been sold and is moving to Sweden, he doesn't know what to do. In his grief, he comes across two other long-time security guards (Freeman & Macy) who are head-over-heels in love with OTHER pieces in the gallery. In short order, they conceive an ill-conceived plan of stealing the original pieces and replacing them with fakes prior to leaving the country. What they realize, however, is each guard's unique "gifts" may do more damage than good once they start the heist.This is not "Rififi" with it's professional thieves performing a well-choreographed, ultra-stealth heist to end all heists. This is as "fish out of water" as it gets. It's also what makes this such a special, satirical, light movie. These are kind, gentle souls who are having the loves of their life being ripped out from under them through no fault of their own. They just feel... well, robbed by the very museum they have protected for decades. They don't intend to hurt anyone. They just can't see past their obsession for the art. You cheer for these guys.Let me say, without giving up the ending, that the ending made my wife fall in love with this movie. It's not a "chick flick" movie, but it is for those who aren't into explosions and foul language. It's light-fare with fun, silly characters played by master actors.I rate this a 7 out of 10 because it really isn't a mainstream movie and can't compete on that level. But it deserved better than the straight-to-DVD path it ended on. It is worth watching for a night of light entertainment. A fun film. :-)

Okay, so on the cover it's advertised to look like a bad-ass crime movie, it's a crime comedy drama, it's pretty cool though, the men doing the heists aren't criminals, they're just regular old guys who love their job so much they're willing to stop a painting from being re- located.It's pretty good, the acting is good, the characters are well developed, it's entertaining to all ages, it's filmed okay, and it's pacing is pretty good.Defiantly recommended, no alcohol needed, but you know alcohol won't hurt, it's got a decent soundtrack, and some nice moments, especially the moments involving art.

It was a sweet family movie. It had lots of plot holes that young kids might not pick up on (and maybe a bit too much of William H. Macy's ass) but to be honest it was a forgettable movie that wasn't much of a comedy. The way it was advertised was completely deceiving. The DVD cover showed the 3 characters with guns. The movie had nearly no guns. It even showed the villains in the character Roger's imagination ( which lasted about 40 seconds.) I watched this movie expecting a high action cleverly thought out heist movie. The cover made the movie look darker and a thriller. Instead I got a movie full of nearly no jokes, awkward hugs and some guy getting naked for statues. NOT AN ACTION MOVIE

Three great actors plays in this film the role of museum guards who are attached to their job and exhibits there. When one of them finds out that the paintings will be moved over to Denmark, together with two colleagues put a plan that will steal them to remain in their possession because with time they got attached to them. How they don't have experience in art heist, they forget the important details that you need to apply to succeed, so find another plan that will change with some fake paintings during their relocation. You need some patience to find out if they will succeed because the action is slow, we are given all the necessary details but even so it is a pretty good movie to watch a rainy afternoon when you don't have anything to do.