Bandits is a clever comedy about bank robbery and the complications associated with love. Bruce Willis stars as Joseph Blake, a good-looking, charismatic "action figure" type of man while Billy Bob Thornton is Terry Lee Collins, Joe's counterpart, a sensitive hypochondriac. The two men team up during a daring prison escape and decide to commit bank robberies to fund a dream of owning a hotel in Mexico. As a precaution against getting caught by the police, Terry suggests approaching bank robbery from a new angle. Instead of going to the bank during the day when there are customers, the two would go to the bank manager's house at night, kidnap him or her, and rob the bank before it opens. As part of the scheme, Terry and Joe elicit the help of Joe's friend Harvey (Troy Garity), an aspiring stuntman, to be the getaway driver. The two proceed to put their plan into effect armed with ridiculous disguises and achieve some success and become known as "The Sleepover Bandits."
Everything takes a dramatic turn though when Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett,
The Gift and
Elizabeth) enters the picture. Kate is a discontented housewife whose husband ignores her. While she is out driving to vent over another slight by her husband, Kate hits Terry with her car and ends up becoming Terry's somewhat willing hostage, driving him to he and Joe's hideaway. Kate asks to stay for the night, dreading the prospect of going home to her husband, and ends up hitting it off with Joe over a common affection for Bonnie Tyler's music. Joe and Kate fall for each other and she ends up joining the two men on their crime spree, much to Terry's chagrin initially. However, after a botched getaway, she ends up getting stuck with Terry alone and sparks ignite.
When Joe, Terry, and Kate reunite, jealousy threatens the friendship between the two men. When they ask Kate to choose between the two of them, she refuses, explaining that she loves the both of them, because together they make the perfect man.
The film opens with Terry and Joe in the middle of a robbery that seems to have gone wrong. The main storyline involving Terry and Joe as the "Sleepover Bandits" and their relationship with Kate is set up as a flashback and is interspersed with scenes from an interview the two men conduct with the host of the fictional program "Criminals at Large" and the discussion Terry and Joe are having during the botched robbery. The way the film is shot is very effective in that it makes the twist that occurs at the end of the movie even more surprising.
