The Real McCoy

Always enjoyed this caper movie from ’93.  Maybe the best thing is the strong female lead in Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger (Batman)) who’s fresh out of prison on parole for robbing banks.  This super rich prick Jack Schmidt (Terence Stamp (Bliss)) (you know the type who has pet tigers, that sorta thing) fucked her over by tipping off the cops.  It’s not totally clear but I think she wasn’t gonna cut him in on the deal and he got pissed.  But hang on ‘cause it gets worse.  Immediately after McCoy gets paroled Schmidt blackmails her into taking another bank job by kidnapping her son.  Man, what a fucking scumbag.

Now even though McCoy is in a sticky situation she doesn’t take shit from anybody.  Like when Schmidt sends one of his henchmen to lean on Karen to accept the heist offer she knees him in the nuts not once, not twice but three goddamn times!  She also throws his gun away and calls him an asshole.  In another scene she ends up punching her ex-husband right in the kisser knocking him on his ass.  Shit, this lady is not to be messed with.

All the men in this film hit on McCoy too adding such a creepy layer.  And I do mean all the men, even some random dude on a train.  They grossly compliment her by saying how she kept her figure while on the inside.  The love interest, J.T. (Val Kilmer (Heat)), is the only guy who doesn’t come off like such a piece of shit.  But of course he can’t resist hitting on her too.

The picture not only deals with a woman trying to deflect constant advances from unsavory men but they show how hard it is to get back on your feet after a stretch in prison too.  No one wants to hire McCoy because she’s a felon and the instinct is she can’t be trusted.  In fact the only way she gets a job is by lying on her application.  But then of course she gets caught and loses it.

McCoy can’t win wherever she goes, whoever she turns to.  She just wants to be with her little boy and that’s taken from her as well.  Her ex won’t let her see him and the lawyer’s cold advice is to give up and start another family.  Then the little guy gets kidnapped and held hostage.  So when McCoy’s forced back into bank robbing it truly becomes her only option.  The filmmakers do a good job making you feel really bad for her so you’re with her all the way.

The heist itself is fun and the stakes are there due to proper build up of McCoy and her situation.  They go in at night so no one has to get hurt and it takes them hours and hours to crack the vault.  And the bit about purposely tripping the alarm over and over so the police don’t even care anymore is clever.

And I know this has been percolating in your mind since the first paragraph, yes, someone does get mauled by a fucking tiger in this piece.

Russell Mulcahy directs and he’s done some cool work that’s had varying degrees of success.  Highlander and The Shadow are probably his most well known pictures.  He also did a lot of music videos before that.  But then there’s 1991’s Ricochet, a weird action thriller which instead of doing a straight review of I decided to make a laundry list of strange shit that’s in there.  I cautiously recommend it.  Mulcahy seemed promising but after The Shadow did only ok he went more into TV.

The Real McCoy does something special though.  Female leads in heist movies are virtually nonexistent so to actually get one and for her to be so badass is fucking fantastic.  She makes her own way in the world.  I guess you could say she’s the genuine article.  (Go ahead and boo, no regrets)