Perfect cast and a good story

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Don't listen to the negative reviews

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A woman is released from prison, an expert bank robber who wants to settle down and go straight.But then her parole officer and her former employer try to get her to pull one more heist....This film is just basically the dramatic version of the notorious Bruce Willis vanity project 'Hudson Hawk', but with all the entertainment and fun taken out of it.The film disappeared without a trace when released here in November 1993, and if my facts are correct, I don't think it's ever been screened on T.V.Basinger is fine as the titular character, forced into one last job when her son is taken by General Zod, and her parole officer. But she get's to know her son, even though he thinks she is just a friend, and her real mother is dead.Hence 'The Real McCoy'.Val Kilmer visits from the set of True Romance as the potential love interest, but he mugs his way through his scenes, and acts like a complete and utter ego maniac, maybe life imitating art.It's not very exciting, the crew never appear to be in any danger, and then it finishes, where everyone predictably lives happily ever after.She should have stuck with Boxing Helena, it may be just as bad, but at least it's well remembered.

Kim Basinger and Val Kilmer make an attractive couple in "Highlander" director Russell Mulcady's "The Real McCoy," but this miscast couple kindles little chemistry. "Johnny English" scenarists William Osborne and William Davies drew their inspiration for this lackluster Universal Pictures release from the Desmond Lowden novel "Bellman and True." The conflict is that the greedy, despicable villain kidnaps a professional criminal's son and forces her to rob a bank before they turn him loose. The haul is an $18 million plus payday, and a well-heeled Atlanta criminal bankrolls the endeavor. Meanwhile, our heroine—fresh out of prison after serving 6 years of a 10 year sentence—struggles to go straight, but she is swept back into the storm. Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger of Never Say Never Again") was also married. After she leaves the Athens Correctional Facility, she learns that her worthless ex-husband, Radly (Alex Van) has told her son that she is dead. Radly informs Karen that he burned all the letters that she sent to her son Patrick. During a convenience store stick-up during a rainy night, Karen encounters a bumbling criminal, J.T. Barker (Val Kilmer of "Batman Forever"), whose pistol falls apart at the scene of the crime. Later, J.T. informs his distant (Terence Stamp) relative about her. J.T.'s relative is none other than Jack Schmidt; he is the same guy who used Karen on a previous job. Karen blew that hold-up at the Atlanta Union Bank and she received a 10 year sentence. Karen wins parole but has the ill luck to land a corrupt parole supervisor, Gary Buckner (Gailard Sartain), who takes her to see Schmidt.This is another one of those impossible crime capers that Mulcady imbues will reasonable suspense and tension. The protagonists have to find a way to break in and escape despite the precautions that the bank has put in place to thwart criminals. What is different here is that our heroine remotely triggers the alarms repeatedly to wear out the security guards and the Atlanta police. Eventually, the authorities decide that nobody is trying to hold up the facility. Instead, they figure that a flaw in the system activates the alarm so they give it. This is a neat example of the man who cried 'wolf' scenario. At the same time, the filmmakers devise a way for the heroine to succeed without pulling off the robbery because she is supposed to be sympathetic. In other words, "The Real McCoy" succeeds as an incredible caper movie but the heroines don't make society suffer. The chief surprise occurs when our heroine turns the tables on her adversaries. Mulcady and his scribes make the villains look thoroughly reprehensible, particularly Gailard Sartain. The last minute scene on the airport runaway gets pretty tense. Terence Stamp makes a grim criminal. Basinger defends herself well enough, especially when she knees a thug in the groin and disarms him. Furthermore, Basinger isn't required to disrobe. Val Kilmer has his stupid act down pat. Mind you, Mulcady never lets thing dawdle. The scenes in the bank as the cops find themselves being summoned for one more time are amusing. The best thing about "The Real McCoy" is that the heroine and her son gets away. Meantime, she exacts revenge on Jack and his evil cronies."The Real McCoy" is formulaic material presented with a modicum of style. Basinger looks beautiful in every outfit that she dons.

As a heist movie I didn't enjoy much. As an action I have seen better and more memorable. As for the acting; no one did her or his best here. So what's this movie's really interesting point ? I'll tell you. It's the title's role.Movies have accustomed us to watch that kind of roles played by men, not women. That confident, genius, and heartwarming thief has been always a man. This time it's (Kim Basinger).Since the 1970s the American cinema had gone a long way to assure that women can be heroes too. Look closer to 1993 movies : there was violent yet sensitive woman (Point of No Return), a remake of the French movie (La Femme Nikita – 1990), who is a dusty female copy of James Bond. Funny and philanthropic woman (Sister Act 2 : Back in the Habit), a comic copy of (To Sir With Love – 1967). And there was (Body Snatchers) too, a remake of (Invasion of the Body Snatchers – 1959), where the lead role was given to a girl (played by Gabrielle Anwar). Clearly, it was a man's world, but not anymore.In another, less daring, less creative, treatment this could have been a movie for say (Val Kilmer), however – for this movie's good and ours – THANK GOD it wasn't ! So, it's low-tone average entertainment for some afternoon, where its Real McCoy factor is in the sex of who played its Real McCoy !

Not sure why this film gets trashed as much as it does, since it's pretty good. It's worth watching for the cast alone -- Basinger, Kilmer and Stamp. But it must be said that the British film upon which it's based is better. That would be Bellman and True (from an old English song) starring a cast of people that you probably never heard of, headlined by Bernard Hill as the computer geek who has to go along to keep his son safe. Bellman and True also serves as something of a time capsule, taking us back to a grotty, depressed and depressing London that is barely visible in British films any more. We can probably put the change in tone down to the Four Weddings effect. The comparison of these two movies serves as an excellent example of one of the more interesting questions of popular culture: why are the Brits generally so much better at movies that feature crime than Hollywood? Think of Cracker, State of Play, Prime Suspect, Behind The Lines, and Mobile.