TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Martin Bradley Apart from an unpleasant whiff of homophobia, exemplified largely by Martin Balsam's appallingly stereotypical gay character, "The Anderson Tapes" is a mostly excellent heist movie from Sidney Lumet, the heist here being that of a fancy New York apartment building and it's organized by Sean Connery's recently released jailbird. The twist, for want of a better word, is that Connery's every move is being filmed or recorded by someone. The robbery itself, which takes up most of the film, is very well handled and there is a good supporting cast that includes a young Christopher Walken in one of his early roles. Ultimately, though, this is minor Lumet, entertaining certainly but hardly memorable.

nilesswenson-12076 Sean Connery is a dedicated criminal, but not a thug, and he likes being the brains, but he prison time would suggest mixed results. He gets out again and chooses to rob a bunch of nice, rich white people in their plush apartment building where his gold digging ex-lover Dyan Cannon lives. The crew he sets up is experienced , but not very cohesive. The heist is pretty well planned, but problems rise and the plan gets broken up by a bed ridden boy and his Ham radio. Another Hammer from Wichita Falls, KS (sister city of Jersey City, NY) breaks through the bureaucracy and contacts the NYPD. The best imagine of the movie is how the NYPD has blocked off the street leaving the gang unaware of their presence.There's a lot of memorable performances like Alan King (mobster turned legit?), Martin Balsam (the gay advance man not cut out for crime), Val Avery (the brutal thug Socks), Chris Walken (in his film debut),Margaret Hamilton (in her last), Judith Lowry (who had to be the second oldest working actress of that time behind Estelle Winwood), Mr. Muscle Garrett Morris (as the recon team squad leader doing his own stunts) and Ralph Meeker (who may have advised Marlon Brando on what it's like to perform with cotton swabs in your mouth, obviously great). Director Sidney Lumet knows New York very well and everything in the planning and build up of the crime is audio taped by somebody, and these nice, rich white people are being spied on by several government agencies, but the robbery has nothing to do with what they are spying on so you can guess what happens to these illegal wire taps.

siderite I found out about this film in reference to the latest scandal about government wiretapping. Indeed, it has a pertinent subject: a heist, its planning caught on tape by a bunch of government agencies, none of them authorized to have them.However, while the subject is interesting its realization into film is not so good. A lot of the heist details, the personal life of Anderson and so on were superfluous, while why those agencies had wiretaps there in the first place was not explained. The fact is, if you remove the very few scenes related to the tapping you get a rather bland, even bad, heist movie.OK, Sean Connery is in it, an incredibly young Christopher Walken, Martin Balsam, which no one remembers nowadays. They do their job and they do it well, but even with their charm the film remains ordinary. That is why I will rate it under average, but I consider that the idea had a lot of potential and has again very much today. Perhaps a well done remake would be a good idea!

ferbs54 Well can I remember the anticipation we all felt while awaiting the return of Sean Connery to the world of Bond, back in 1971. And, after a four-year, one-picture lacuna, Connery finally did return to play 007 in that year's "Diamonds Are Forever." Released in December, the film ultimately became the 5th highest earner of 1971, raking in almost $20 million domestically (pretty good, for those days!). But while the world anxiously awaited the return of Connery to Bondom, everybody's favorite Scotsman, as if to ease the tension, appeared in the Sidney Lumet picture "The Anderson Tapes," which came out in June of that year. Somehow, despite my love of all things Sean back when, it has taken me a full 41 years to catch up with this heist thriller, and a recent DVD perusal has served to demonstrate what a fun afternoon at the movies I missed way back when.In the film, Connery plays a safecracker named "Duke" Anderson, who, when we first encounter him, is being released from prison after a 10-year stretch. Duke wastes little time getting back together with his old gal pal Ingrid Everleigh, played by Dyan Cannon, riding high at the time after being Oscar nominated for her role in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." "I haven't been laid in 10 years," Duke tells his more-than-willing ex, whose last name, appropriately enough, is pronounced "ever lay." Duke soon hatches a scheme to burgle not just one or two apartments is Ingrid's posh building at 1 E. 91st St., right off Fifth Avenue and Central Park, but the entire building! Backed with Mob money, he hastily puts together a team, unaware that practically every single member of that team is being covertly spied on by various police or government agencies. And thus, as Duke and his cronies pull up their Mayflower van to the building, the viewer must wonder "Does this plan have a chance in hell of success?"I must admit that my initial viewing of "The Anderson Tapes" left me a trifle disappointed. It was not nearly as action packed as I had been expecting, and its middle, heist-planning third seemed to drag a bit. A repeat viewing served to change my opinion, however, as I picked up on all sorts of little business that I had somehow missed the first time around. While it is true that the final third of the film, the actual heist, remains fairly thrilling, the operation's planning stages, and the discreet surveillance that accompanies the planning, are quite fascinating, as it turns out. In the film, surveillance cameras, wiretaps and various bugs seem to be ubiquitous! There are cameras in Duke's prison, in a bus terminal, in the apartment complex and elevator; Ingrid's apartment is being tapped by her jealous part-time lover; the Mob boss who is backing Duke (an excellent, cast-against-type performance by stand-up comedian Alan King) has his car bugged, while an aged nurse spies on his capo dad and his waiter carries a wire; a surveillance team watches one of Duke's gang members, Spencer, a suspected Black Panther; and another surveillance team from the Narcotics Dept. observes another gang member, "The Kid" (played by Christopher Walken, in one of his first films). As I write these words, it is estimated that in NYC, there are 4,313 cameras in the subway system alone; in 2005, the New York Civil Liberties Union counted 4,176 security cameras below 14th St., an area roughly 1/6 the size of Manhattan! Truly, it would seem that Lumet's film--and the 1970 novel by Lawrence Sanders on which it is based--was more than prescient in this area. Ironically, however, Duke's plans come to woe NOT because of all the spying that inadvertently has him as its locus, but because of the actions of an asthmatic, paraplegic little boy; but perhaps I've already said too much. The bottom line is that the film sends a mixed message at best regarding the efficacy of government surveillance, and ultimately we are left unsure whether we are supposed to worry about those hidden eyes and ears or merely scoff.Besides the great players already mentioned, "The Anderson Tapes" features, in its truly marvelous cast, Martin Balsam as a gay antiques dealer, and yet another member of Duke's gang who is being spied on; Ralph Meeker as an amusingly tough police captain; the great character actor Val Avery as a Mob sociopath; future "SNL" alumnus Garrett Morris as a cucumber-cool police sergeant; Conrad Bain, who would soon become a TV fixture via "Maude" and "Diff'rent Strokes," as one of Duke's victims; and former pinup model and sexpot actress Meg Miles (ever see her in "Satan in High Heels"?) and former Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton (here in her final film appearance) as two more apartment victims. Lumet's direction makes for a tense and at times exciting experience; he had formerly worked with Connery on 1965's "The Hill" and would go on to direct Sean in the British films "The Offence" and "Murder on the Orient Express," as well as, years later, "Family Business." An intriguing, outre jazz score for the film was provided by composer Quincy Jones, and though at times it comes off as almost non sequitur, it IS an interesting one, nonetheless. Still, the main selling point of this film has to be Sean Connery, who is terrific here, as usual. Moving like a panther, handsome as can be, effortlessly tough and yet withal likable, he makes us root for Duke, while we wonder at the same time how his cockamamy scheme to rob an entire apartment building in broad daylight can ever hope to succeed. Truly, even a licensed British superagent would have had a tough time with a mission like this!