7. Bandits
This one is a more light-hearted entry. In Bandits, Bruce Willis and Billy Bob-Thornton star in a film billed as an action-comedy but one with a surprisingly effective method of robbing banks. Throughout the course of the film the pair become adored by the American public for the frightfully considerate way they knock over banks. Their plan basically involves staying overnight at the house of the bank manager and taking his family hostage until the next morning where they go with him to work and take the money as he opens up. Its absurdly brilliant and you have to suspend your disbelief to actually consider t plausible but it works. The two leads - a wise-cracking smooth talker and a paranoid hypochondriac - are insanely likable and you end up rooting for them. Some of the funniest moments are when the media interviews the hostage families who regale viewers with how darned nice the people who took them prisoner actually were. It would be out of place in a more serious film, but it fits perfectly into the off-the-wall, tongue-in-cheek style of Bandits. Why are movie bank robbers so easy to cheer for?