| Overall Grade: |
D |
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| Story: |
F |
|
|
| Acting: |
A- |
|
|
| Direction: |
B |
|
|
| Visuals: |
C |
|
|
Leave before the devil knows you're in the theater
by Dick (movies profile)
Jun 27, 2008
26
of
48 people found this review helpful
Okay, the first five minutes of Marisa Tomei having hot sex was probably worth the ticket price. Fine. Go for that, because she looks fine naked, even if Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn't. Then leave. Because this is a real stinker.
I'm really sorry to have to say this, because I have great respect for the cast and the director, fine artists all, and they did the best they could with the material. But the concept, the story, and the script were irredeemable.
Eight people in the theater. Two were smart enough to leave, but not until about ten minutes before the end. The rest of us were too dumb to know we'd been had, but when the lights came up we all looked at each other--strangers--and came to an immediate consensus that we all should have gone home and gone to bed a long time ago.
Crime capers of the cinematic species generally involve smart crooks, meticulous timing, and nobody getting hurt. Or else they involve a lot of violence and plodding detective work to catch the bad guys. But if you read interviews with real cops, they all say the same thing: Most crooks are just plain stupid. Well here we have a screenwriter who apparently decided to see how being a bunch of stupid crooks plays out on the screen--in a drama, not a farce. Maybe it can be made to work, but it didn't work here. It didn't work as straight drama, as psychological thriller, as suspense, as anything. |
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