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the audience applauded

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This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Just as I had expected, the IMDb viewer average is fairly low. This is due to several very obvious reasons (which I will nevertheless include here because what is my obvious may not be the average film-goer's obvious by a long shot).Firstly, the movie is good. Movie fans generally have a distaste for those.Secondly, in SB's entire 115 minutes there aren't any action scenes whatsoever. SB is all dialog. Not one punch is thrown, no explosions in sight ("oh no!"), not even someone running from someone else - or just to jog, not even that. The violence is only implied ("oh, shucks!"), on occasion threatened but it never amounts to even one drop of blood being spilled ("not fair!"). This is, of course, unacceptable for the average viewer who cannot sit still for 15 minutes and listen to people talk ("there's nuthin' going' on in this them da here film!"), much less 115 minutes. That's simply asking too much.Thirdly, the abundant dialog is nearly all wheeling-dealing, various schemes being discussed, traps being prepared, capers organized, and so on, i.e. far too convoluted for the typical movie-goer whose favourite movie is something even a frog can understand, something like the IMDb perennial favourite, "The Shawshank Redemption", which these tiny minds consider a complex character study just because there are characters in it that they can study (until they finally grasp even that story). Even the intricate world of international banking and finance becomes a major element of SB, and this must have served as a sort of last straw for those who were already fidgeting nervously in their seats, hungry for bombs to go of, going "whoosh!". ("Booo-riiing!")To top it all off, the final insult to the typical film fan: no anti-Capitalist left-wing message. ("All them bankers and not even a hint of Viva la Revolucion? Me no like!") SB could have been the most talky film in the universe, and dull as hell, but if only it had a typical liberal attack on "Western Imperialism" or something of that propagandist nature, the film-buffy masses would have been quickly appeased and would have forgiven SB for all its imagined "flaws".SB is a very entertaining crime comedy, admittedly without any moments that are belly-laugh-inducing, but with a number of amusing scenes and fun and interesting plot-twists. An excellent cast had been assembled for this overlooked movie, with Caine carrying it all as well as he (nearly) always does. However, in some ways it is Cybill Shepherd who steals the spotlight with the amazing dits, vivaciousness and energy she brings to her role. Jay Leno, who played clips from this movie several times in his show, isn't half-bad as an actor; after all, what would you call hosting that NBC program all these years? That is acting, what else would it be.I can understand the disappointment and anger of a Wes Anderson fan, who perhaps expected more weird-for-the-sake-of-it embarrassing grimacing/mugging by a cast of nepotistic semi-amateurs, but you can always find that in WA's films. No need to expect EVERY comedy to be as awful as that.

... turns out to be silver laundering. That's what this maybe overly cerebral movie is about. Most of the protagonists try to give their criminal actions a whiff of legality by diverting the flow of money to Switzerland. It was an item then as it is now. Almost all the action is set in Switzerland, in the Italian speaking part south of the Alps, to be exact. And Switzerland is basically boring (i.e. no shots fired, no bloodletting, no moans or shrieks in the night). Nonetheless, the movie has some beautiful scenes. The way the freshly arrived crooks find out that their bank's offices is above a crummy pizza parlor, for example. Or the visit in the shady count's empty palazzo. The count takes one of the elegant, anorexic chairs and smashes it to the ground to stoke the fire. (Then he hands a chair to Caine. He should have smashed it likewise, to the dismay of the Count - what are you doing? - who meant that one to be sat on. Instead Caine just sits down - a missed opportunity!!) Also very good is the scene in the small private plane which runs into some serious turbulence, with the Count very scared an Caine not scared at all, taking the opportunity to clarify options and attitudes. Louis Jourdan, who plays the Count, is a mayor asset to the movie. Cibyll Shepherd is in one of her better parts here (interesting wardrobe and make-up) and also has a few really good scenes. Overall this movie is worth watching.

"Silver Bears" has something in common with the "heist" or "caper" movies which were popular in the sixties and seventies, but deals with financial fraud and dodgy deals on the money markets rather than an actual robbery. It stars Michael Caine, who also starred in "The Italian Job", one of the best-known caper movies. Here Caine plays "Doc" Fletcher, a sort of financial troubleshooter for the Mafia. (Like most of Caine's characters, Doc is British; Caine has very rarely played an American in any of his films, "The Cider House Rules" being one of the few exceptions). Doc is sent by his boss, Joe Fiore, to buy a Swiss bank through which the Mob will be able to launder their ill-gotten gains.The plot is a complex one, involving not only the acquisition of the said bank (which turns out to be no more than a small office above a pizza parlour) but also an investment in an Iranian silver mine and various complicated financial transactions, not all of which are entirely above board. (The mine would explain the "silver" element of the title; the significance of the "bears" element remains obscure, even if one understands the word in its financial rather than its zoological sense).The late seventies were perhaps not the most distinguished period of Caine's career. In the sixties and early seventies he had made some excellent films in Britain ("Zulu", "Alfie", "The Battle of Britain", "Get Carter"), but he clearly felt that being a major star of the British cinema made him no more than a big fish in a small pond and he wanted to reinvent himself as a Hollywood star. Unfortunately, in his early Hollywood years he often seemed more like a small fish in a big pond and often found himself cast in some dreadful movies.Indeed, Caine himself has described three of the films which he made in 1978 and 1979, "The Magus", "The Swarm" and "Ashanti", as being his worst. (I have never seen "The Magus", but would certainly agree with him about "The Swarm" and "Ashanti", although I would argue that "Blame it on Rio" from the mid-eighties also deserves a dishonourable mention as one of his least distinguished achievements)."Silver Bears" is never as bad as something like "Ashanti", but few would count it among Caine's better films. Certainly, the star tries hard, playing Doc as a Cockney geezer reminiscent of Charlie Croker from "The Italian Job", but never makes him very likable. His leading lady Cybill Shepherd, who plays Doc's love-interest Debbie, was also going through a difficult phase in her career at the time, trying to prove, often without much success, both to the world and to herself that she was something more than Peter Bogdanovich's girlfriend and muse. (Both Caine and Shepherd were to see their careers revive in the eighties; he began to find roles in better films like "Hannah and Her Sisters" and she successfully reinvented herself as a TV actress in "Moonlighting").The film is sometimes described as a "comedy thriller", but I for one never found it either very comic or very thrilling. It lacks the action sequences which can make heist movies exciting, but it shares the main weakness of that particular genre, namely an unsavoury "crime does pay" attitude. None of the main characters seem to have any moral scruples, but none of them end up paying for their sins, apart from one unlucky accountant who is chosen to serve a jail term, largely as a scapegoat for the sins of others. Despite the best efforts of Caine, Shepherd and some other well-known faces such as Louis Jourdan and Joss Ackland, "Silver Bears" is little more than a tawdry movie about tawdry people. A piece of tarnished silver. 5/10

It's a good crime picture with a star-packed cast. The plot is very engaging and not much complicated but also a clever one, which is a big advantage because you never get bored while watching it. Ivan Passer who directed the movie was amongst the leading directors of the new wave in Czechoslovakia in the early 60s but this picture is entirely different. Anyway, it's good in its genre and definitely well acted with the required *twinkle* in the eye from Michael Caine. The locations are very attractive as well as music. It's a very pleasant movie to watch in the evening. I recommend it not only to Michael Caine fans.