''Foolproof'' is a 2003

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

heist film The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery. One of the early defining heist films was '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almo ...

directed by William Phillips and starring

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial ''Oppenh ...

, Kristin Booth, Joris Jarsky, and James Allodi.

Plot

Kevin, Sam and Rob are playing a game, known as "Foolproof", in which they create working plans to infiltrate and

burgle Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murde ...

various targets. They do not actually execute these heists, preferring to simply simulate them using necessary technical and physical abilities to carry out the tasks required for the heist. They adhere to some rules, such as using identical equipment and infrastructure as the target and using no firearms of any kind. All is fine until a famous criminal, Leo Gillette, breaks into Sam's apartment, steals the trio's plans for a jewelry warehouse heist and accomplishes it. He then

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to f ...

s the group into designing and executing a plan to steal $20 million in bonds from a bank. Since he has evidence incriminating them in the plans, they accept. Tension escalates within the group as Rob befriends Leo, while Kevin and Sam attempt to hinder his plans. They get the security codes to the safe and successfully switch the bonds. But the situation turns against them when Leo and Rob force Kevin into an elevator and crash it. When they go to retrieve the bonds, Sam shoots Rob, then Leo shoots Sam. With the three friends dead, Leo leaves with the bonds. It is later revealed that the friends had switched Leo's gun, giving him one loaded with blanks. Sam and Kevin get up and are greeted by Rob. When Leo gets back to his place, he sees a fire started by the gang to destroy evidence against them and planted evidence against Leo on the latest burglary. Leo is taken in custody by Detective Mason, while the friends drive away in their car.

Cast

as Kevin * Kristin Booth as Sam * Joris Jarsky as Rob *

David Hewlett David Ian Hewlett (born 18 April 1968) is a British-born Canadian actor, writer, and director known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay in the ''Stargate'' science-fiction franchise. He first gained fame for his roles as Grant Jansky in the Canadi ...

as Lawrence Yeager * James Allodi as Detective Mason *

as Leo Gillette

Production

The film was filmed in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, and produced by

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operat ...

Communications and Ego Film Arts and released theatrically on October 3, 2003, by

Odeon Films Cineplex Odeon Films (later known as Odeon Films) was the film distribution unit of the Canadian cinema chain Cineplex Odeon Corporation. The company was originally named Pan-Canadian Film Distributors. In 1998, the company was sold off to Allianc ...

in Canada and Momentum Pictures of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In Canada, it was released in 204 theatres, more than any other movie in the past. Under Telefilm Canada rules stating the film producers must have a good script and firm distribution deals to get a grant of more than C$1,000,000, Telefilm granted ''Foolproof'' C$3,400,000. The entire budget was C$7,800,000.

Reception

Chris Parry of eFilmCritic gave it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote: "The practice of Canadian companies and funding bodies unquestioningly funding any and all projects that Atom Egoyan signs his name to must end immediately. Not that this, his first foray into action thrillers, is necessarily the worst film of all time. In fact, it's actually quite enjoyable in parts. But the money blown on it could have funded eighteen smaller films that actually had a shot at the box office - or one close to this one, only which had the one secret ingredient needed to make a profit... an actual star."

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in March 2004, including behind the scenes and special effects features, the theatrical trailer and outtakes. The package also contained a CD of the soundtrack, with songs performed by

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video ga ...

The Dandy Warhols The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1994 by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström. They were later joined by keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford ...

, Sam Roberts and Pilate. In 2020, mobile phone company Mint Mobile, in which

had an ownership stake, made the film available to view for free, through a print from the ad-supported streaming service

FilmRise FilmRise is a New York City–based film and television studio and streaming network, which has become one of the largest independent providers of content to ad-supported streaming (AVOD) platforms, in addition to providing the largest free direc ...

, on the website mintmobileplus.com, purported as being part of a new streaming service launched by the company (a joke on the various streaming services, such as

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netwo ...

, and

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription streaming service owned and operated by Apple Inc. Launched on November 1, 2019, it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service was announced ...

, launching or increasing in popularity that year, even having a logo stylized after the first service); the joke was that the film was the ''only'' program on the "service", being shown with various different thumbnails to make it appear as if it were different films.

References

External links

Official Website
* * * * {{Mojo title, foolproof 2003 films 2000s crime comedy films 2000s heist films 2003 independent films 2000s comedy thriller films Canadian independent films Canadian crime comedy films English-language Canadian films Films about friendship Films directed by William Phillips Films shot in Toronto Canadian heist films 2003 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian films