Parents' Guide to Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins

This action-adventure feels like a relic from the '80s or '90s, with its unabashed sexism and glamorization of smoking. The main character in Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins is a playfully exuberant man of privilege who effortlessly invades women's personal spaces. But of course, in a film like this, female characters are romantically game and in dire need of protection, if not outright saving. The villain is evil but must be worked with in order to win the long game. There are even a few scenes that feature the hero committing unethical (or just plain bad) behavior so he can accomplish his goals. It's rare to see a film so openly promote Machiavellian justifications for problematic and unethical behavior.

While the performances themselves are good, committed, and appropriate for what the film wants, all the non-progressive representations of masculinity, men, and women make for an underwhelming and unintentionally hilarious experience. There are also technical problems, logical gaps, inexplicable sequences, laughable coincidences, and many unrealistic situational outcomes. Some characters are completely unexplained (like Rehan's tech support ally), and no two female characters ever speak to one another, let alone about anything other than a man (the Bechdel test). And insofar as the actual heist goes, a lot of it is contrived and convenient, and even if "it was all planned from the beginning," many steps aren't accounted for and don't make sense.