Breaking In (1989)

Director: Bil Forsyth

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Casey Siemaszko, Sheila Kelley, Lorraine Toussaint, Albert Salmi, Harry Carey Jr., Maury Chaykin, Stephen Tobolowsky

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  An amateur thief and a professional robber team up for an outrageous comic heist.

Plot: Ernie (Reynolds) is an aging career burglar who knows just about everything there is to know about breaking and entering. One night, Ernie has stealthily slipped into a home only to discover someone else is already there -- Mike (Siemaszko), a guy in his early 20's who likes to sneak into other people's houses so he can raid their refrigerators and watch their televisions. Ernie is taken aback by Mike's recklessness, but is impressed by his skills; he's convinced the kids has the makings of a first-class thief, and offers to make him his protege. Mike agrees, and soon the two are working together, with Ernie trying to explain the importance of playing it as safe as possible while Casey follows every youthful impulse to make some fast money and throw it away just as quickly.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? Absolutely!

When it comes to my favorite Burt Reynolds performance post 1981, this is it.  He's fantastic and he's doing some real acting and not that "do your Burt Reynolds thing" business.  The trailer for this is hokey as hell and it poorly portrays this film as the subdued comedy drama it is.  John Sayles' script is well handled by Forsythe but I felt like it loses a little something once the kid (wonderfully played by Casey Siemaszko) strikes off on his own.  It could be that I hate seeing someone so likable screw up so badly.  It might also be that Burt Reynolds is suddenly a lot less in the picture for those twenty or so minutes.  Regardless, the picture recovers for a very satisfying ending that goes in a nice, funny and touching way.  This is a wonderful picture that has one of Burt's fine performances and one that will surprise just about everyone familiar with his work.  I wish he did more roles like this but then I've seen very little that he's done in the past thirty years.