Steal (2021): Movie Review

At the start of "Steal", the movie puts title cards on each main character (Platinum as the Brain, Hiyasmin as the Heart, CM as the Soul, Mitch as the Muscle), as if they meant something. But by the time the credits rolled, whatever these title cards meant are never made clear or just never realized. And that pretty much sums up "Steal". A film that wants to come off as an experience with brain or smarts, made with lots of heart and love, with a soul and a message for its audience, with muscle and substance - but actually provides nothing at all. This was a film that literally "steals" your precious time and life.

Three Filipinas in Japan become friends with each one having their own reasons on why they work in Japan - most of which revolve around the need to earn money.. CM (Ella Cruz) is working to support her kid. Hiyasmin (Meg Imperial) needs to save enough money for her father's transplant. Mitch (Jennifer Lee) needs to pay off her gambling debts to a feisty and notorious loan shark. All seems lost until they meet a fellow Filipina Platinum (Natalie Hart) who is married to a Japanese crime lord. Platinum is in an abusive relationship and decides she wants revenge and offers the other women a chance to earn millions by doing a heist against her husband. The three are hesistant at first but with a lot of money and their freedom at stake, they eventually agree to do it. Can these three innocent Filipinas actually pull it off?

If you want a film without any redeeming factors at all, then "Steal" takes the cake. This was one of the worst film experiences we have ever had (not even recently but against every single film we remember watching). The biggest issue with "Steal" was that it presents itself as a heist film but it doesn't give anything for audiences to grasp on to make it be classified as one. Heist films need a great crime behind it, the planning and excution are critical in making it all gel together. "Steal" doesn't have any of these. There's literally no planning except in buying obviously fake guns. The heist itself is simply stealing a bag at gunpoint. There's nothing smart or thrilling about it at all. There's also this second plot that acts as another heist in itself but the tricks used within it were too obvious and predictable. Our biggest issue with "Steal" was not the wooden and laughably bad acting, or the numerous stupifying logical loopholes from scene to scene (for example, how can a Japanese man understand complete Tagalog), but it was the shoddy and lazy writing. The story was already very basic in itself but it was still very disjointed and in literal shambles. There's literally no character development and you certainly won't find any reason to invest on each one. We have to be blunt about this but we felt that the makers of "Steal" spent more time prioritizing and making sure that the actors speak and memorize their Japanese lines than making an effort to pen a watchable narrative. Please trust us when we say to avoid "Steal" at all costs.

Rating: 0 reels

Why you should watch it:
- there's no reason to watch this unless you want to waste your time and your life

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- a heist film without any semblance of planning or thrill - wooden acting and logical loopholes abound