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After the Sunset Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexuality, violence and language) Theater release: November 12, 2004 by New Line Cinema Directed by: Paul Zbyszewski Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes Cast: Pierce Brosnan (Max Burdett), Selma Hayek (Lola Cirillo), Woody Harrelson (Stan Lloyd), Don Cheadle (Kingpin) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Whether or not Pierce Brosnan has been the best James Bond since Sean Connery, there is one thing he does have in common with his cinematic forebear, and that is a rather iffy taste in scripts. When he isn't appearing in stale romantic–comedy piffle like the recent Laws of Attraction, Brosnan has tended to play either real–life men fighting noble causes in obscure, mediocre films like Evelyn and Grey Owl, or he has given in to typecasting and played dodgier versions of his Bond persona, such as the sleazy, embezzling spy in The Tailor of Panama or the classy, refined art thief in The Thomas Crown Affair. Granted, all of these films have had their pleasures—many of them due to Brosnan's own easy, roguish charm and self–deprecating sense of humor—but the films themselves have been a mixed bag at best, and his newest, After the Sunset, is one of his lamer efforts.

Pierce Brosnan comes out of 'retirement' for one more heist

It doesn't help that this new flick feels at times like it was cobbled together from pieces of Brosnan's other films. Once again, he plays a professional thief, whose name this time is Max Burdett, and whose field of expertise this time is jewelry; and once again, he gets to do fancy high–tech things such as operating a car by remote control; and once again, he spends most of the movie near a tropical beach, and the fact that it is Salma Hayek and not, say, Halle Berry with whom he makes sandy love as the waves roll by is just an accident of casting. Some things are admittedly different this time, though. Max Burdett is committed to his partner, Lola Cirillo (Hayek)—unlike Bond, he's a one–woman kind of guy—and the two of them have officially retired from the thieving life. What's more, Lola is eager to make their partnership permanent, and so she urges Max to write his wedding vows.

But then comes temptation, as Max receives a visit from Stan Lloyd (Woody Harrelson), the FBI agent who used to be Max's nemesis. Despite wounding Max on his last heist, Stan let the thieves slip through his fingers, and he fell out of favor with his bosses at the Bureau as a result. Looking for a way to restore his name, Stan has tracked Max down to the Bahamas, and he tells Max he doesn't believe the couple's retirement is genuine. It turns out a cruise ship bearing a famous diamond is about to dock at that island, and the diamond in question is the only specimen that Max has not yet stolen from a particular collection. Stan is convinced Max moved to that island to start planning a way to complete his set, and although Max insists he had no idea the diamond was on its way, it is clear that he finds domestic life a little dull, and the prospect of one more heist somewhat appealing.

Woody Harrelson is the FBI agent who could never catch Max

That's the set–up—a retired pro is called back to his line of work, a criminal isn't entirely satisfied with "normal" life—and it's a classic premise that has been worked into many kinds of films. But director Brett Ratner, who made comedies like the Rush Hour movies before he got all serious with the schmaltzy holiday flick The Family Man and the Hannibal Lecter prequel Red Dragon, can't quite find the right tone for his newest project.

Stan (Harrelson) convinces Max (Brosnan) there's one more jewel worth stealing

On one level, After the Sunset tries to be one of those trendy con–artist flicks that pulls the rug out from under us in the final reel; the fact that this film will have such an ending is telegraphed early on when Max tells Stan the plot of Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, and Stan replies, "I don't like those twist endings." But this twist, when it comes, is no big deal, and the film offers no other payoff worth mentioning. On another level, this film goes through the motions of a typical heist movie, with scenes of people cutting security–camera feeds and maneuvering around laser beams and crawling through vents; but it begins to stretch credulity well past the breaking point when, say, the masked person does a hasty emergency tightrope walk off the cruise ship and down toward the dock, without once losing his or her balance.

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