Heist

Leverage: Redemption – The Scared Stiff Job

  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Scared Stiff Job
  • IMDb: link

In “The Scared Stiff Job” the crew tackles a greedy businessman (Sam Witwer) targeting dying patients offer cryonics which bankrupts the families they leave behind, and, when the bills can’t be paid, sells off the body parts for an even larger profit. The solution to their problem is a bit goofy, running a form of A Christmas Carol in attempting to make him believe he is waking up in the future to new owners of the business even less scrupulous than him. A bit of gaslighting later, and proving to his over-the-moon secretary he doesn’t care for her at all, and the team racks up another win for the little guy. The episode is similar to, although not as effective nor memorable as, “The First Contact Job.”

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Leverage: Redemption – The Digital Frankenstein Job

  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Digital Frankenstein Job
  • IMDb: link

Trading out Hardison (Aldis Hodge) for Breanna (Aleyse Shannon), the season’s second episode starts with Harry (Noah Wyle) smelling something fishy in court as the team targets an unscrupulous ghost gun manufacturer (Andy Cohen) and the judge (Rachael Harris) he has in his pocket. Running cons on each, there’s some goofy cons including Eliot (Christian Kane) playing two different roles to each of the marks as both a survivalist and the owner of what the judge is looking for to legitimize her family business.

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Leverage: Redemption – The Weekend in Paris Job

  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Weekend in Paris Job
  • IMDb: link

Season Three of Leverage: Redemption opens with a simple job involving the theft of a Russian gangster’s golden owl statue that leads the crew to hide out at a posh party full of criminal oligarchs auctioning off natural resources amongst each other where they find a new case worth pursuing. The host of the gathering is Arizona Mike who is stealing water from a small town and selling it to the highest bidder. He’s also got one of his victims locked up in his empty vault.

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Daredevil – With Interest

  • Title: Daredevil: Born Again – With Interest
  • wiki: link

In what is the obligatory standalone crossover episode, “With Interest” continues themes of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) struggling with his need to put his skills outside of the courtroom to use. In this episode this involves Hell Kitchen’s most famous blind lawyer walking into a bank during a robbery and finding ways to keep everyone safe, prevent the theft of a rare jewel from a safe deposit box, and dole out a little punishment. The episode works in a vacuum with the various other storylines put on hold for this single adventure which, in part, is also used to introduce Matt to the bank’s assistant manager Yusuf Khan (Mohan Kapur) who happens to have a hero in the family.

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The Grifters

  • Title: The Grifters
  • IMDb: link

Stephen Frears‘ 1990 neo-noir crime thriller centered around three grifters in the City of Angels comes to the Criterion Collection on 4K and Blu-ray. One could make a strong case The Grifters, now 35 years-old, remains the director’s best film. Trust may be hard for the characters to find in the script, given the shadowy world of half-truths and lies, but the talent is evident in every frame of this stylish look at con artists getting in over their heads.

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