After the Sunset (2004)

Review by All Movie Guide
The role of the suave thief is a walk in the park -- or maybe on the beach -- for Pierce Brosnan. That's exactly how he plays it in After the Sunset, oozing certitude as his wispy island shirts flap in the breeze. Factor in the tropical setting, the eventual companionship of the central adversaries, and the "I'll hoodwink you now you hoodwink me" plot, and it's not substantially different from another midlevel Brosnan caper flick, The Thomas Crown Affair. The films diverge mostly in tone, as John McTiernan is an action director, while Sunset director Brett Ratner favors buddy comedy. That may explain why Sunset doesn't take itself very seriously, forsaking violence and heist footage in favor of a goofy camaraderie between Brosnan and Woody Harrelson, which Ratner brings front and center. As the hunter and hunted get mistaken for gay lovers on a fishing trip and counsel each other on women troubles, After the Sunset glides along a light and likeable path, if only because Craig Rosenberg and Paul Zbyszewksi's script seems content to avoid yet another white-knuckle exercise in breaching high-tech security. Unfortunately, things snap back into the cookie cutter just in time for an ending pretty typical of these Elmore Leonard-style whimsical crime capers. Casting Don Cheadle helps call to mind the pillars of the genre (Ocean's Eleven, Out of Sight), while Salma Hayek's primary narrative function seems to be modeling bikinis and other skimpy outfits. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide