In "Dead Draw," four high-rollers carry out the robbing of a bank in which they have used insider information to clean out several safe deposit boxes filled with $25 million in cash. But a little problem arises when the thieves try to make their getaway.
The four robbers have cleverly used the occasion of a military parade in a small Midwestern town to dress in fatigues and rob the bank. They have learned from a "deep throat" source that members of a drug cartel are using the bank in a pleasant rural area to stash their loot. Two of the thieves (Mack and Dallas) are brothers, one of whom took the fall and spent time in prison during an earlier heist. Another (Jones) is a military veteran with a checkered past and is prone to extreme violence. The ringleader (Harrison) is love with Sarah, the insider who provided him with details about the bank security system and the safe deposit boxes.
One drawback of this film is the over-reliance on flashbacks to provide character details. Mack, who has just completed is prison term has now apparently discovered religion. But do we need to have a flashback confessional scene in a church to understand Mack's state of mind? The exposition about the previous heist was straightforward; do we need to see that past event re-enacted? Mack's younger brother was apparently a good boxer. It might have added some much needed action to the flashbacks to see him in the ring. But that never happened.
The film developed some good suspense in piquing the audience's interest in who "sold out" the thieves and prevented their exit from town by plane. The resolution was also nifty in drawing upon a well-meaning secondary character who messed things up for the robbers. The characters were generally unlikable, but one interesting theme that emerged that may be summed up in one line: "You can't run from your past." In this regard, all of those flashbacks demonstrated how true that adage was for a group of losers.
The four robbers have cleverly used the occasion of a military parade in a small Midwestern town to dress in fatigues and rob the bank. They have learned from a "deep throat" source that members of a drug cartel are using the bank in a pleasant rural area to stash their loot. Two of the thieves (Mack and Dallas) are brothers, one of whom took the fall and spent time in prison during an earlier heist. Another (Jones) is a military veteran with a checkered past and is prone to extreme violence. The ringleader (Harrison) is love with Sarah, the insider who provided him with details about the bank security system and the safe deposit boxes.
One drawback of this film is the over-reliance on flashbacks to provide character details. Mack, who has just completed is prison term has now apparently discovered religion. But do we need to have a flashback confessional scene in a church to understand Mack's state of mind? The exposition about the previous heist was straightforward; do we need to see that past event re-enacted? Mack's younger brother was apparently a good boxer. It might have added some much needed action to the flashbacks to see him in the ring. But that never happened.
The film developed some good suspense in piquing the audience's interest in who "sold out" the thieves and prevented their exit from town by plane. The resolution was also nifty in drawing upon a well-meaning secondary character who messed things up for the robbers. The characters were generally unlikable, but one interesting theme that emerged that may be summed up in one line: "You can't run from your past." In this regard, all of those flashbacks demonstrated how true that adage was for a group of losers.