Burt Reynolds has had a very shaky career. Truth be told he has made far more bad movies than he has good movies. I personally believe it is because of very poor choices, such as , lame cop movies, smokey and the bandit sequels and both cannonball run flicks. However, amongst the very large pile of "ruff" this movie is a real diamond. His character of "Earnie", the gruff but lovable experienced thief taking a young naive kid under his wing trying to teach him the ropes and tricks of the trade is done with such subtle depth by Reynolds, that it caught me completely and delightfully offgaurd. When you think about it, this was not a big budget movie and Burt gives a fantastic performance just like he does in "Boogie Nights", which is also not a big budget film. Yet when it is a huge budget movie, Reynolds tends to give rather unispired and perfunctory performances. Maybe he should stick with these indie flicks more often.
Review of Breaking In
