Movie review
September 29, 2016 · 95 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Masterminds is a 2016 crime comedy loosely based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo armored-car heist in North Carolina, centering on naive guard David Ghantt who gets manipulated by his crush Kelly Campbell and her ex-con associate Steve Chambers into stealing $17 million before a chaotic flight to Mexico. The narrative runs on pure slapstick, romantic scheming, and escalating incompetence among a cast of rural Southern characters. No identity-driven themes, activist dialogue, gender-role messaging, or institutional critique appear in the story, characters, or execution.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Masterminds.
Woke representation / casting
Casting and character demographics match the real 1997 Southern heist participants exactly, with no audience-visible forced diversity, race/gender swaps, or identity signaling in principal or key supporting roles.
Woke political dialogue
All dialogue serves comedic misunderstandings, heist logistics, and character quirks with zero political statements, activist rhetoric, or social-justice content.
Identity-driven story themes
The plot engine is personal greed, romantic manipulation, and slapstick failure in a 1990s rural setting, with no identity politics, gender subversions, or representation arcs driving character or narrative choices.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Greed and criminal incompetence are mocked through broad humor but without any modern activist framing of capitalism, patriarchy, family structures, or Western norms as flawed systems.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant | The adaptation adds comedic embellishments to the real Loomis Fargo robbery but introduces no ideological reinterpretations of historical figures or events.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No backlash or complaints exist claiming the title pushes woke, activist, identity-political, or left-wing messaging; all discussion stayed on comedy quality.
Creator track record context
Jared Hess has no cited history of political, social-justice, or identity-focused prior work to provide context.
Production
