A lot of potential with different big name comedic actors but it just misses everything.Edit: it got better.

This movie is really bad but really funny the plot is predictable and stupid, but it's all hilarious because of the trashy plot I'm not giving it 10 stars but it's super funny! Funniest movie of the year!

Masterminds is one of those rare comedies that tackles a shocking true story that made national news headlines, and blends it in with goofy PG-13-esque humor. The brain behind this comedic endeavor happens to be no other than Jared Hess, the man behind such comedies like 'Napoleon Dynamite', 'Nacho Libre', and the critically roasted 'Gentlemen Broncos'. So what is the big story? It is the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery which scored the headlines as to earning the title "the biggest bank robbery in American history". It is both a shocking and complex crime committed by wide cast of individuals. Now whether or not this movie succeeds on delivering the laughs and fun of this astonishing lies the big question. Boasting a talented comedic cast, this movie does not fail to spare some good laughs here and there, but sporadically falls flat in other places. The hit-and-miss ratio in the joke department is not too high, but certainly not low enough to make it a comedic bore. Set in 1997, this film follows Dave Ghantt (played by Zach Galifianakis), a 36-year old man working at mundane job as a guardsman for the Loomis Fargo bank. When he is convinced by his crush Kelly (played by Kristin Wiig) to pull an seemingly impossible task of robbing $17,000 in cash, he unexpectedly finds himself double-crossed by one of his accomplices Steve Chambers (played by Owen Wilson) who threatens to turn him in to the FBI. Upon fleeing to Mexico, Dave is faced with a dangerous encounter with a hit-man named Dave McKinney (played by Jason Sudeikis) who Steve hires to kill. There is only so much you can with a comedy picture starring a vast range of actors who each have had their fair share of satisfying comedic endeavors in the past. The most difficult task Jared Hess takes on here is effectively executing its true-story-based plot in a laugh-evoking manner while avoiding the restraints of its complexity. For the most part, he somewhat succeeds. But it doesn't quite make up for the occasional botched attempts at humor, especially when its peddling on butt jokes and slapstick humor. After all, everyone in the cast is only giving much to do with a script that places a limit on their comedic muscles. Boarding the center role is Zach Galifianakis who serves as the driving force of the story. Resorting to his "guy with an absent mind" typecast, his character maintains roughly the same level of stupidity as his character Alan from the 'The Hangover' trilogy, only it is less funny here. Of course, he does manage to score just a few good laughs every once a while. But arguably the biggest show stealer is Jason Sudeikis who lands the most laughs out of everyone in the cast. His chemistry with Galifianakis is surprisingly effective, even more than Galifianakis's glamor with Kristin Wiig and Owen Wilson (who is somehow never funny throughout the entire picture). The heist scene which marks the turning plot of the plot is finely executed and provides a good laugh or two. If you go in expecting something of car crashes and shootouts to add to the energy, you will certainly set yourself up for disappointment, although there is one major action sequence late in the film.Masterminds is a sporadically funny caper comedy with just a fair amount of clever and wit, but not enough a worth while picture. There are good attempts at laughs handed from such an appealing comedic cast, particularly Jason Sudeikis. By the end, the film is nothing remarkable nor does hit the high points of any of the cast members' careers.

If this is based on a true story, and it was, I can't believe a bunch of nimrods like this were able to pull it off. Coming off looking even worse to my mind was the security company Loomis Fargo, which didn't seem to have any measures in place to prevent something like this from happening. The actual robbery took place in October of 1997, so that's not that long ago for the company to have gotten with the times. Having just read a summary of that heist, the details in the film are amazingly accurate, right down to the picture of Elvis hanging over the fireplace of the Chambers home. Unbelievable.As far as the movie goes, it's got it's share of hits and misses, with the funny parts coming across as slapstick more than anything else. I'm not a big fan of movies with Saturday Night Live alumni in them, and this one had a couple in Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon. Both were OK here and that's as much as I'll concede, but considering the inane nature of the story, they fit right in with the kind of forced humor the picture came up with.For some real laughs, stick around for the outtakes following the film because they're funnier than the movie itself. You know, The Bowery Boys made a 1949 movie titled "Master Minds", and in comparing the two one would be hard pressed to decide which one had a dumber cast of idiots. In the Bowery Boys flick, Huntz Hall is gifted with a mind reading ability to predict the future. If he could have told us about this one coming out in 2016, we would have all been better forewarned.