Good concept, poorly executed.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The acting in this movie is really good.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Okay, the movie is based on a true story (a fad nowadays, it seems), and it most certainly has its moments. But in general the entire flick lacks some panache. If it were a Canadian province, I'd say it's (northern) Manitoba on a Tuesday night.While the main protagonist is portrayed rather decently, as well as his 'transformation' the rest of the movie is a bit stale and dry - I'd go so far to say clinically clean. Yeah, I get it, he's quite a normal guy, a victim of circumstance and all, trying to make ends meet and all. And I dig the story, but it's like eating a loaf of dry bread - you satisfy your hunger but without much joy. Personally I think the director (maybe as writer, too), tried a bit too hard to make it "arty" and forgot that a movie also should be entertaining, otherwise it's just bland ol' life. I'll keep the director in mind, maybe his next flick will be less Manitoba and more Québec.

While this is not a Hollywood-style, over-the-top, cars-exploding, blood- spattering, machine-guns-blazing standard gangster film, it's worth anyone's time, largely because it says so much about what effect a life of crime has on the family life of the criminal. Boyd's wife gets lots of attention in this film, and we see clearly the terrible situation she and her children are put in because of her husband's career as a bank robber. She doesn't seem to be complicit, other than by not abandoning him. This focus is only possible, of course, because Boyd started out as an ordinary man trying to provide for his family, not as some delinquent street tough who was headed for the criminal life from his earliest years. It's the family connection that gives this film some emotional depth beyond the usual gangster narrative. When Boyd gets out of jail for the last time and tries to get his wife to join him again, and she has to refuse him because she is re-married and "doing good" for herself and their children, the story achieves real poignancy.Kevin Durand makes a terrific tough guy, someone you would not want to meet in a dark alley.A check with wikipedia shows some places where the script deviates from history, but nothing very outrageous, despite the suggestion of a previous reviewer here. For Canadians this story has special interest. Edwin Alonzo Boyd was one of the country's most famous and colourful (with a 'u') criminals.

First 10 minutes or so is OK, then movie turns into melodrama. Quite frankly Edwin Boyd is probably flipping in his grave at how stupid this movie is. Either way, story has nothing at all to do with reality of one of Canada's best known bank robbers. Watch the movie, then go read wikipedia entry on him. I expected either mostly accurate portrayal of Edwin Boyd's life as bank robber, or decent story, this movie is neither.If they released this as TV movie, without connecting it to a real person, perhaps it would have been passable movie, maybe 5/10, but when you expect to see movie about killer shark, and instead you wind up watching kid and a dolphin for 2 hours, waiting on killer shark to kill them both, and that shark never appears in entire movie, ... well, you see where this is going.

Isn't this the same story of Stander (from South Africa). Mr Andre Stander was a common police man who realised being a robin hood would not only teach the authorities a lesson but also fulfil his long term dreams and against the will of his wife gets into the business of robbing banks. When caught, he forms a group of three which the public named "The Stander Group" and succeeded in stealing more money from banks in any country ever! Seemed pretty much same to me. Any guesses?If I am not wrong it is another movie like many which try to portray real life events in different shades in different countries. Hopefully this one makes a mark for itself.