A Simple Plan (1998)

An accountant (Bill Paxton) and two dumb white trash hicks (Billy Bob Thornton, Brent Briscoe) come across a crashed plane in the snow with a dead pilot. Looking into the plane, they discover a bag containing over four million dollars! They plot to steal the money figuring no one will be looking for it and divide it up later on. But of course, there would be no movie if everything went right, would there? Based on the novel by Scott B. Smith (who adapted his book for the screen) and directed by Sam Raimi (SPIDER MAN). It's the kind of movie where the three conspirators may as well have "We're dumb and we're going to screw this up big time" tattooed on their foreheads! Since we know what's going to happen, there's no tension and the film follows the dots as we check them off. The characters are poorly drawn. Bridget Fonda as Paxton's wife goes from moral conscience to Lady MacBeth in about 60 seconds! Thornton (in an Oscar nominated performance) and Fonda are actually quite good, we can't hold them responsible for the cliched stereotypes. Paxton and Briscoe are just plain bad! The cinematography by Alar Kivilo is superb. It's not a bad movie, it's decently done but also incredibly overrated. With Gary Cole and Chelcie Ross.