Ajax steals a movie

Proving his continuing loyalty (hint hint fellow Monkey Barners), Ajax sent me a list of his 15 favorite heist films. He wanted me to point out that several were remakes, but most people know this and they hold up well, so those are the ones he's talking about. (He didn't know this, but it's a great segue into my Movie-Hype comparing both versions of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.) Everyone has different tastes, and I personally wouldn't have all these films or in this order, but I'd probably have two thirds of them. Hey: I'm never going to look a guest-list in the mouth, but in this case, even more kudos are in order. (And who knows? Maybe he'll inspire me to do my own list and we can argue about it over all-you-can-eat chinese food.)

AJAX'S TOP 15 HEIST MOVIES OF ALL TIME

15. Hudson Hawk: If you can't see how brilliant it is, go watch stupid Die Hard again or something.

14. Gone in Sixty Seconds: 50 top end cars in one night. Vinnie Jones as Sphinx was priceless.

13. Out of Sight: Clooney again, robbing banks, spending time in jail, escaping, romancing the girl, and a surprise appearance by Samuel L. Jackson.

12. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels: A bunch of English friends heisting the heisters.

11. Sexy Beast: Ben Kingsley's character, Don Logan, is only tangentially connected to the heist in the film, but every second is mesmerizing. And there's giant fanged bunnies.

10. Killing Zoë: Imagine Pulp Fiction in a French bank on Bastille Day. With more Heroin.

9. Entrapment: Zeta-Zones doing some sort of bendy exercises in spandex. And I guess she and Connery steal something as well.

8. Swordfish: Setting aside Travolta's weird haircut and Berry's topless scene, Jackman made a pretty sexy computer nerd.

7. The Score: DeNiro and Norton as Canadian thieves out to outdo one another.

6. Heat: The family drama really drags, but the actual heist portions of this movie have the same 'you are there' intensity as D-Day in Saving Private Ryan.

5. Heist: Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito. I'd like to go with French Connection, but I'm not completely sure that was a heist flick.

4. Thomas Crown Affair: Its good to see Denis Leary doing non-Disney. And both Brosnan and Russo naked. Oh, and the painting thing is neat too.

3. Italian Job: Drops to three because of Ed Norton's porno stash.

2. Ocean's Eleven: George Clooney is the new Chairman. Slick and cool.

And Ajax’s #1 Heist film of all time….

1. Usual Suspects: So good, you don't even know you're conned until the last second.