Bank robberies is a style of film that has always been popular, from classics like Dog Day Afternoon to more recent films like Inside Man, and even films like Swordfish take the genre to a different place. However, in real life nearly 60% of bank robberies get solved, and that is at the heart of How to Rob a Bank.
David Leitch (Bullet Train) directs a cast that includes Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, John C. Reilly, Anna Sawai, Pete Davidson, and Rhenzy Feliz in a story based in Pittsburgh and a group of bank robbers lead by Ryan (Hoult). They have a huge social network following from their show that is the title of this film, where they give tips on and show footage from their robberies (all in disguise), even prompting copycat robberies. FBI Agent West (Reilly) is tasked to stop the gang and recruits the help of a former hacker named Reagan (Kravitz) to help catch them. What follows is a true story of cat and mouse as both sides start to feel the pressure.
Most of this film takes place in Pittsburgh, and it truly showed the city in a good light, and this comes from a guy that has spent quite a bit of time there. It truly is a great choice to match the tone of How to Rob a Bank as a big blue-collar city, furthered by mixing in the footage used on the Internet by the gang. When it comes to the acting, the performances are fine, highlighted by Hoult: when he is on the Internet videos, he is engaging even though he is under a mask. I do love Reilly as a actor and I know he has had some serious roles in the past but seeing him try to play the serious role as a federal agent, I kept thinking of him in past characters like Dale and Cal Naughton, and it just never locked in for me.
Even though the story is presented in a different type of presentation, this is not necessarily a bad thing. You are going to get the frenzy that can be expected from the direction of Leitch, but he also adds some culture and unexpected things here with the required level of suspension for disbelief. For me, there is a great mix of comedy, action, and drama. This film does flirt with political messaging, but it does not go overboard, and at about two hours long, it does not drag too badly. If there is a minor gripe here, it lies in how Leitch tries adding too many elements from other films in this genre that make it a bit cliché. I still had a lot of fun with How to Rob a Bank, so I will recommend it to be seen as a twilight showing in a theater.