The Hot Rock (1972) review

Career criminal Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is released from prison and can't walk a block away from the joint before his brother-in-law Kelp (George Segal) nearly runs him over with his car to offer him a new gig: to steal the Sahara Stone from the Brooklyn Museum.  As far as capers go, it runs about average (if not a little less so): it's not enough that Redford & Company have to snag the diamond, but then they have to go through this needlessly complicated process of (a.) breaking into a prison (to free a buddy who got caught), (b.) flying a helicopter through NYC (oh look, the WTC is being built!) to a police precinct and then (c.) using hypnosis on a bank employee ("Afghanistan Banana Stand!").  There's no real "set-up" to go over the planning of any of these maneuvers and somehow they get away with all of it (spoiler alert): it's all surface level action, and the Thin Blue Line presented here is just a shade more realistic than the Keystone Cops.