Very well executed

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Memorable, crazy movie

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

*SPOILERS?* Notable for having one of the most disastrous getaways of any heist film, the most distracting Welsh-disguised-as-New-York-accent I've ever seen, a truly impotent and therefore a real short-tempered henchman who Connery has to give a little glove slap to. I think, at one point, Connery doesn't even rough him up, he just pushes him by the burlap mask until he stumbles over like Porky Pig in a jumpsuit. I don't know. Dog Day Afternoon, Reservoir Dogs, or the lesser known Friends of Eddie Coyle are better if you're actually interested in the psychology of the thief instead of them trying to look badass and smoke cigarettes and slap chicks after they bang them. Its what got rich 70's directors like Sidney Lumet boned up enough to film it at least once a decade until his death, and God bless him, why shouldn't he? That being said, as a heist film, its probably only inferior to those that I named. For every Anderson Tapes, there are a dozen Bank Jobs, Snatches, Lock, Stocks, and Smoking Barrels, and Things to Do in Denver When You're Deads. That last one probably doesn't roll off the tongue quite as smooth. But its a pathetic film with guys pointing guns before swapping opinions on pop-culture. You get the idea. Anderson Tapes on the other hand, has Sean Connery pre-hair loss, great direction, and Christopher Walken looking emotionless about the things that make normal humans have to pop a couple Xanax before doing. Or maybe its because he was told "You're playing the part of bad guy number 3. Your name is the Kid and you wear a mask and drive a Volkswagen for the gang."

This film is for those over 16 but would probably appeal most to the over 40. The movie does move slowly and is predictable. However, for those of us who love and remember Sean Connery as 007 will enjoy this film. Dyan Cannon's appearance in this film is also an added plus. I also say Kudos to the actors/actresses appearing in the film for their performance. The movie provides light entertaining. It also makes you wonder just how intrusive "Bib Brother" really could be in our own lives. It is difficult to imagine all this governmental surveillance without governmental action. In any case, grab your popcorn and enjoy Sean Connery as a professional burglar.Four thumbs up.

I expected more from this film, influenced, I guess, by my TV Guide which gave it a rating of three and a half out of four. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who has done some fine New York City stories -- "Serpico", "The Pawnbroker" -- and the cast includes people like Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, and Christopher Walken. How could it go wrong? Well, it doesn't go wrong -- exactly. The first half, though, looks a lot like an ordinary caper movie. Connery is just out of jail and assembles and finances a handful of experts to rob an entire high-end apartment house of every valuable in every flat.Lumet and his writers have even inserted a bit of humor, largely based on Martin Balsam's gay interior decorator, and Balsam is great in the role. He's given a couple of witty lines and moues that never quite go over the top, though they approach it. Ralph Meeker as Delaney, the police captain in charge, really DOES go over the top with his machine-processed working-class New York accent. There's ironic humor, too, in the incremental revelation that three of the conspirators are being covertly watched by three independent law-enforcement agencies, none of whom know about the others: Walken because the Narcs are interested in him, the black driver because he's a Black Panther, and the mobster who is providing the money because he's -- well, he's Italian. Not that the records play any part in the story, which is all the more reason for a talented guy like Quincy Jones to have avoided all those screeching electronic noises on the sound track.But Lumet is a tragedian at heart. He ends few of his movies happily, a tendency he shares with some other directors and writers, like Roman Polanski and Stephen King. The last half of the film has the robbery crew hurrying about their business in the apartment house, not realizing the crime has already been detected, the street sealed off by police, and a Special Tactical Police Unit (or whatever it's called) is already rappelling down the side of the edifice. There is a climactic shoot out in which people are realistically killed.Lumet has directed this uncertain story with noticeable skill. He intercuts long scenes of the preparation and execution of the robbery with briefer scenes of witnesses describing that happened to them. There are also cuts to the post-crime events involving police on the street. At first we're unsure of what's going on in the background except that we notice a lot of bustle. With each cut it becomes increasingly clear that what's going on is that dead bodies are being removed and put into an ambulance, so the audience only gradually becomes aware of the fact that the ending is going to be melancholy.But in asking the viewer to make the leap from the assembly of a comic caper crew into tragedy, Lumet is asking a lot. Let me put it this way: Sean Connery is not the kind of actor who should be shot in the back and die.

Well can I remember the anticipation we all felt while awaiting the return of Sean Connery to the world of Bond, back in 1971. And, after a four-year, one-picture lacuna, Connery finally did return to play 007 in that year's "Diamonds Are Forever." Released in December, the film ultimately became the 5th highest earner of 1971, raking in almost $20 million domestically (pretty good, for those days!). But while the world anxiously awaited the return of Connery to Bondom, everybody's favorite Scotsman, as if to ease the tension, appeared in the Sidney Lumet picture "The Anderson Tapes," which came out in June of that year. Somehow, despite my love of all things Sean back when, it has taken me a full 41 years to catch up with this heist thriller, and a recent DVD perusal has served to demonstrate what a fun afternoon at the movies I missed way back when.In the film, Connery plays a safecracker named "Duke" Anderson, who, when we first encounter him, is being released from prison after a 10-year stretch. Duke wastes little time getting back together with his old gal pal Ingrid Everleigh, played by Dyan Cannon, riding high at the time after being Oscar nominated for her role in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." "I haven't been laid in 10 years," Duke tells his more-than-willing ex, whose last name, appropriately enough, is pronounced "ever lay." Duke soon hatches a scheme to burgle not just one or two apartments is Ingrid's posh building at 1 E. 91st St., right off Fifth Avenue and Central Park, but the entire building! Backed with Mob money, he hastily puts together a team, unaware that practically every single member of that team is being covertly spied on by various police or government agencies. And thus, as Duke and his cronies pull up their Mayflower van to the building, the viewer must wonder "Does this plan have a chance in hell of success?"I must admit that my initial viewing of "The Anderson Tapes" left me a trifle disappointed. It was not nearly as action packed as I had been expecting, and its middle, heist-planning third seemed to drag a bit. A repeat viewing served to change my opinion, however, as I picked up on all sorts of little business that I had somehow missed the first time around. While it is true that the final third of the film, the actual heist, remains fairly thrilling, the operation's planning stages, and the discreet surveillance that accompanies the planning, are quite fascinating, as it turns out. In the film, surveillance cameras, wiretaps and various bugs seem to be ubiquitous! There are cameras in Duke's prison, in a bus terminal, in the apartment complex and elevator; Ingrid's apartment is being tapped by her jealous part-time lover; the Mob boss who is backing Duke (an excellent, cast-against-type performance by stand-up comedian Alan King) has his car bugged, while an aged nurse spies on his capo dad and his waiter carries a wire; a surveillance team watches one of Duke's gang members, Spencer, a suspected Black Panther; and another surveillance team from the Narcotics Dept. observes another gang member, "The Kid" (played by Christopher Walken, in one of his first films). As I write these words, it is estimated that in NYC, there are 4,313 cameras in the subway system alone; in 2005, the New York Civil Liberties Union counted 4,176 security cameras below 14th St., an area roughly 1/6 the size of Manhattan! Truly, it would seem that Lumet's film--and the 1970 novel by Lawrence Sanders on which it is based--was more than prescient in this area. Ironically, however, Duke's plans come to woe NOT because of all the spying that inadvertently has him as its locus, but because of the actions of an asthmatic, paraplegic little boy; but perhaps I've already said too much. The bottom line is that the film sends a mixed message at best regarding the efficacy of government surveillance, and ultimately we are left unsure whether we are supposed to worry about those hidden eyes and ears or merely scoff.Besides the great players already mentioned, "The Anderson Tapes" features, in its truly marvelous cast, Martin Balsam as a gay antiques dealer, and yet another member of Duke's gang who is being spied on; Ralph Meeker as an amusingly tough police captain; the great character actor Val Avery as a Mob sociopath; future "SNL" alumnus Garrett Morris as a cucumber-cool police sergeant; Conrad Bain, who would soon become a TV fixture via "Maude" and "Diff'rent Strokes," as one of Duke's victims; and former pinup model and sexpot actress Meg Miles (ever see her in "Satan in High Heels"?) and former Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton (here in her final film appearance) as two more apartment victims. Lumet's direction makes for a tense and at times exciting experience; he had formerly worked with Connery on 1965's "The Hill" and would go on to direct Sean in the British films "The Offence" and "Murder on the Orient Express," as well as, years later, "Family Business." An intriguing, outre jazz score for the film was provided by composer Quincy Jones, and though at times it comes off as almost non sequitur, it IS an interesting one, nonetheless. Still, the main selling point of this film has to be Sean Connery, who is terrific here, as usual. Moving like a panther, handsome as can be, effortlessly tough and yet withal likable, he makes us root for Duke, while we wonder at the same time how his cockamamy scheme to rob an entire apartment building in broad daylight can ever hope to succeed. Truly, even a licensed British superagent would have had a tough time with a mission like this!