Genres

Visitors Review

Ron Aberdeen 2012-05-25 01:56:50

Simply the Best

This is the best Nick Nolte film I've seen.Neil Jordan's direction pulls you into a world of sleaze, drugs andgambling, with such ease.Their world becomes real. With exceptional music, lighting and editingand with every member of the cast, right for their role.This is cinema at it's best.The story takes us through a world most of us have no idea of.The actors portray characters with great passion causing you believe inthem and you feel for Nolte with his cold-turkey scenes and rejectionby life.This is how to tell a story with subplots and minor characters creatingmisleading avenues.All scriptwriters should watch this film, it is a prefect film to learnfrom. Also it is enjoyable.Maybe there are a few imperfections but all great works should havesome flaws.

2012-05-24 09:15:06

Heist Film with a Thin Streak of Dark

Nolte is always a joy to watch, and he doesn't let you down with his performance here. This movie is head and shoulders above Soderberg's version of "Ocean's Eleven", but it could have been better. The story becomes unforgiveably lame in the third act, as the plans unravel and coincedentally fix themselves in unlikely and silly ways that have nothing to do with the actions of the protagonist, as he is busy getting very, very lucky at the casino while everyone else does the interesting stuff. Worth a rent for the cinematography alone, but not one destined for my permanent collection.

2012-05-14 04:53:49

DECENT HEIST MOVIE WITH GALLIC COOL AND A SNAZZY SOUNDTRACK!

Yet another Last-heist-before-I-change-for-good flick, but executed in style. While not amazing, the script includes a healthy dose of twists, snitches, plots, etc to make it a fair recommendation. Nolte stars as a junkie gambler who's also the most revered thief in town. The fact that he's a walking train wreck only adds to his grizzled charm. Ralph Fiennes pitches in a pretty convincing performance as an art dealer. But I have a couple of gripes. One, as with most European productions that are dubbed into English (or, as in this case, made originally in English) the vocalization of the dialogue sounds like a high school theater audition. The film has quite a whip-smart script, but verbally it sounds somewhat stilted. In particular the Bosnian actress whose voice sounds like she has a broccoli stuck in her larynx.Second, the DVD has a problem. Each scene ends in a very short fraction-of-a-second freeze frame. I thought this was a problem with my DVD player, or my specific disc, but it seems others have had similar problems. Not that that stops me from recommending this fairly interesting popcorn heist yarn, for at least rental.

Douglas Young 2012-05-13 11:12:45

This is almost like Nolte lived it

Synopsis Spoiler! The film is about an aging thief, gambler, and drug userBob (Nick Nolte) who is down on his luck. He has a chance to change hisluck by robbing a casino in the French Riviera. However, what Bob doesn'tknow is that someone has tipped the police of the heist. The policeman,Roger (Tcheky Karyo) who has a friendship with Bob, begins to watch himknowing that he will eventually have to arrest Bob for this crime. To getready for the heist, Bob quits taking drugs cold turkey. One of the funnyscenes that I liked was when Bob must get rid of Roger who is following him. Bob gets Roger to drive him to an addiction meeting and tries to get Rogerto admit that he is an addict too. Bob goes into the meeting and goes outthe back door. Bob's part in the heist is to gamble at the casino and keepthe police focused on him while the team does the job. With Anne (NutsaKukhianidze) and great style, Bob wins big. 6/10

Christopher Medak 2012-05-12 16:35:19

A wonderfull portrait of an old thief.

I loved this movie, its sense of style & pacing was real & colourful. Thefact that NickNolte is a unapologetic drug addict who had to kick one last time for onelast Heist waspoetry. The casting was genuinly real & unaffected. Thank god this film ismore thanheist roller-coaster blockbuster.Maybe the day's of MTV movies are comingtoan end .Thank you......PS I would love to see the Original French version, Anyone know where itcanbe found ?

rcoss2001 2012-05-12 06:25:33

Great roles for Nolte and newcomer Nutsa Kukhiandidze.Sizzle!

Just saw this movie this eve,04/16.Wow.Plan to tell my friends togosee it.Simple heist plot given the right new life by Nick Nolte and therestof the cast.Nick Nolte's face looks like he's lived the life of thecharacter Bob Montagnet,a gambler and a thief.And newcomer Nutsa isgreat,someone to watch for in upcoming movies.My wife liked it too,as it is agoodblend of action,romance and humor. We both found the film editing style alittle off-putting,with a still frame ending a scene,and some speeded upscenes but by no means a problem,just took some getting used to for us.Ialso appreciated the score and the photography.Not often do you hear aLeonard Cohen song in a movie score.

card4mom 2012-05-04 13:12:52

Boring and illogical.

This movie was so slow at the beginning I took a little nap. Nick Noltemumbled his way through the movie. The plot made no sense and they didn'tknow how to end it. Go see a chick-flick instead.I don't know how they managed the caper but I don't really careeither.

jbels 2012-05-04 03:22:12

Annoying

This film grated on my every last nerve, and I was disappointed because Ilike heist movies and I like Nick Nolte. The paused-editing was really,really annoying, like when your digital TV messes up. It was alsodisconcerting seeing Nolte with a needle sticking out of his arm. Just adreary movie.

ROb Haskell 2012-04-29 06:10:35

Truly surprising "caper"

Caper movies are getting to be just a little too predictable, don't youthink? They always build up an absurd amount of complications that canonly be resolved by radically turning the tables at the end, and thattable-turning is often not very credible.The great thing about this movie is that it builds up that samecaper-type complexity and then in the end - well, it really doessurprise you and turns out to be a much deeper film than your averagecaper. It ends up being about chance and a guy who after all hisfumbling around triumphs at the end of his life and does it the way healways thought it should be done.So I am not sure this should really be called a caper film. It uses theexpectations and conventions of the caper film to do something verycreative.

Misha de Clercq 2012-04-28 15:33:31

The Good Thief's Not So Good

Nick Nolte's a crim on his last, big job, with Tcheky Karyo's cop on hisheels and..yada yada yada, we've heard it all before.Nolte is completely unintelligeble most of the time, the supporting castisnon-descript and uninteresting, the love interest can't act and lookslikeshe could be his grandkid, and the story is predictable andmuddled.One bright point: and uncredited appearance by Ralph Fiennes, who playseverybody else under the table in his two scenes as Tony Angel, a crimelordand art lover. Or something. Anyway, he's deliciously wicked and a lot offun.I just wish the same could be said for this movie.2/5.

valadas 2012-04-26 16:49:17

The third kind of heist movies

Heist movies are of two kinds: those where the heist is successful andend in some sort of bliss for the robbers (on whose side the viewersalways are) and those where it fails and ends up in tragedy. The heisttold in this movie belongs to a third kind because in my opinion it'sneither successful nor unsuccessful like you will see in the end andunderstand why I am saying so. Nick Nolte does an excellent job in therole of a middle aged gambler, heister and drug addict who plans arobbery of valuable pictures in a casino in the south of France despitethe fact that he is being watched by the police. The heist plan is veryoriginal indeed and it is based on a fake heist on one place while thereal robbery will take place on another one. The end of the movie isbit confusing while mixing luck at gambling (in a rather unbelievableand unexplained way) with the success or failure of the heist itself.Well but it's a merry movie (except for the only death that occursthere)and Nick Nolte plays his part in a wonderful way.

Charles Herold 2012-04-25 22:08:41

Nolte as a modern Bogie

In The Good Thief, Nolte plays the same sort of character Humphrey Bogartwas known for; the knight in dented armor, the mysterious man of uncertainallegiences who follows his own law but acts ethically within his code. This is an updated Bogie, modernized with Heroin but with the same sense ofultimate cool. Nolte is brings wonderful assurance to the role. (I alsofound him, contrary to what some of the reviewers here say, perfectlycomprehensible, even though I often have difficulty making out mumblers inmovies. I saw this on TV, and am wondering if the sound was tweaked orthere was a bad copy in the theatre, because I had no problems atall).The movie itself is engrossing and well paced, with intelligent dialogue andintriguing characters. The most unfortunate aspect is Jordan's penchant formeaningless stylistic flourishes, most notably a couple of scenes shot forno good reason in a jerky manner and the way scenes end with a quick,meaningless and distracting freeze frame. The other problem is the movie's anti-climactic ending, which gives you thesense the writer had a good buildup for a caper film but didn't really havean ending. Now I'd like to see the original French film Bob the Gambler tosee if they did a better job that time. All in all, a little flawed butwell worth watching.

tedg 2012-04-25 00:40:51

Watchers and Copies

Spoilers herein.Some time back, Soderbergh took time from his glossy projects to remake `TheLimey.' It was a copy but so much more: it was a film about the previousfilm. This was emphasized and leveraged by shots that were overlain onshots, echoing and restating motion. Very clever, but too intellectual formost I guess. To hoots and catcalls, Van Sant remade `Psycho' in a morereverential way, but the amazing Julianne Moore led a self-referentialrevolt of the actors to create an annotative subtext. So when you watch thefilm, you see three films at once: the excellent original, the slightlylarger `copy' and subtle embellishments on the original in the copy as aprivate dialog between the viewer and actor.Now comes the most elaborate, excessive and fun of this type of hyper-irony.Neil Jordan has played with us before, even when his chancy films didn'tsucceed. `In Dreams' has some of the most chilling scenes I know, theunderwater architecture of a parallel world. `End of the Affair' wasmultidimensionally self-referential, employing -- even stretching! -- theamazing Mrs Moore's ability to inhabit several persons in the same body.Even `Vampire' echoed Tarkovsky's notion of constructed memory (down to theuse of Domiziana Giordano as `mother').This is a copy of a precious film. It is in fact all about copies: thepaintings, the copy of Bob in Paulo, how he manipulates the idea that hewill copy his past crimes, the copy of the vault in the Russian's warehouse,even the copy of the copies on its walls, the twins, the copy of Philip inPhillippa, the false copy of the plan planted in the snitch. Lots of copies,lots of similar references to repetition. Also lots of focus on observation: the cop, the cameras, the remote computertrick and the inclusion in the cast of three filmmakers noted for their`observational' stance. Everyone is watching someone else. Most of all, wehave Anne as the proto-observer who anchors our own narrative perspective.She is us: eager for sense, visiting a new world, unsure of how things willunfold, magnetically drawn to the `real thing' despite its attendantobsessions and fictions. This young actress is one of the luckiest Iremember, having so much attention paid to her by makers of the film. Thewhole enterprise is about her (and us). Nolte knows this. He's not at thelevel of Moore, but he sure as heck knows what's going on and supportsit.Along the way, there is copious color, fakeout stories, flatout love of thecamera and style of life -- a pleasant conflation of rich living from oneman's letting the world define him, together with a masterful manipulationof us in our defining of the character and film based on past film memoriesand templates.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.

sumytra-2 2012-04-24 14:45:09

Boring

Boring, boring, boring, etc. I fell asleep. The only thing I couldlogically follow was the guy with breasts who didn't like spiders. Allthecharacters were worthless. There are attempts at gaining audience appealforthe Nick Nolte character but he is just too sleazy to like. I can'tfigureout why people think this thing is worth spending a matinee priceon.

Random Task 2012-04-20 05:38:53

Anything Goes... (spoilers)

Running from bad luck and bad situations is something that most people doout of a simple survival instinct. Bob the thief (Nick Nolte) embraces badluck and hard times just to spite himself and keep his life tilting alongthe razor edge he is accustomed to. He is not without honor or brains, buthis run of bad luck has culminated in the loss of a last bet. His remainingchoice is to orchestrate an impossible heist or slide into heroin-inducedruin as part of the gutters of Paris.The heist film has been popular over the last several years, and it could beoverkill to do a remake of a respected noir thriller. "Heist" was DavidMamet pushing his skills of sharp dialogue into a tight plot ofdouble-and-triple-cross. Frank Oz's "The Score" was a Hollywood characterstudy disguised as a heist. "Ocean's Eleven" was a great piece of ensembleentertainment. However, Neil Jordan keeps thriving life in the genre byfilling his edgier film with characters you can imagine populating thesocial underbelly of southern France. (Please keep in mind that this is onlya review of the 2002 film on its own. This is not intended as a comparisonwith the original.)Anna (Nutsa Kukhianidze) is the 17-year-old prostitute who Bob rescues bythrowing a winning poker hand with her pimp to pick a fight and lift herpassport in the fracas. She is a drug addict, but speaks ironically aboutherself and her future when people ask, and respects Bob's protégé enough torefuse to return more than physical love. Although Roger (Tcheky Karyo) is apolice detective who thoroughly knows Bob's less-than-legitimate past, theymaintain a delicate friendship of polite lies and strange courtesies. Roger,as a professional. tries to determine what Bob's next job is; while, as afriend, is simultaneously attempting to talk him out of it. Tony Angel (theimpeccable Ralph Fiennes) is an art dealer who Bob uses to finance his jobwith a rare Picasso, but when Bob's treachery is uncovered, Tony is anotherforce to be reckoned with. There are arguing protégés, a conniving set oftwins, the scorned pimp trying to get adequate revenge on Bob, and his teamof quirky, yet professional thieves. It's the blow-with-the-wind way that the characters interact which makes theoutcome believable. Jordan's re-adapted dialogue lets the audience fill inthe unspoken meaning more often than it spells everything out - somethingthat makes the seedy goings on that much more unpredictable. The photographyof Chris Menges is simply breathtaking. It would be hard not to capture theglamour of the Riviera, but it's the way he captures the shadows of theill-lit apartments, alleyways and strip clubs that really gain ourattention. It all adds to the sense that the world of Bob and his associatesare all inhabiting a world that may crumble in on them at any time andincreasingly makes you hope that Bob hasn't bitten off more than he canchew. That is what sets it apart from a myriad of mediocre crime thrillers -its not about the win, it's all about the play. 9 out of 10

2012-04-19 11:01:47

Volume of Dialogue and Editing Nearly Ruined it for Me

Nick Nolte stars as the gambling, heroin-addicted, former thief extraordinaire, Bob Montagnet living in France and trying to go on the straight and narrow. But one last heist has been tickling his itchy fingers, and now Bob plans to go out with a bang. Or at least that's what he wants the local authorities to believe. Using double and triple fakes, Bob throws the police into a frenzied chase to find out exactly what he's up to, who's being double-crossed by whom, why he's spending all of his time with a pretty young immigrant named Anne (the lanky but lusty Nutsa Kukhianidze), and where he plans to be on the night of the big theft. Of course he's right under their noses, with tons of witnesses and cameras. Nobody could've planned it better than Bob Montagnet. ***********************************************************************************A great cast and good acting by all made this a very watchable heist flick. Although the plot has been over done in Hollywood (good thief going straight after one last job), Nick Nolte's characterization of Bob and all his follies made for an enjoyable flawed character study (someone who's getting old, still shoots heroin, fights with local club owners, but has a heart of gold). Problems with the film are relegated to the film's editing and terrible level of volume during some pivotal moments. It was often times difficult to hear Bob talking with one person or another, especially during the planning stages of the heist, which made it very frustrating for me. I wanted to know WHAT was going on without turning my TV up to full-blast. As others here have mentioned too, the editing of the film has problems. I'm not sure if this WAS an editing problem or a transfer to DVD issue, but at the end of each scene there was a half-a-second freeze frame that became maddening to watch. Still an interesting film, though. And the music is extremely interesting to listen to also.

magistrand 2012-04-18 08:20:09

OK movie, but I thought it could have been better

I was disappointed with some of the outcomes of the subplots, butthat's the director's and producer's perogative. I also thought thereneeded more explanations of what was going on, at times.Amusing casting of a sex-changed strong man. But is this actor the guywho for a bet, had breast implants? I remember seeing this guy guest ona couple of shows, and can't remember much what he looked like. To me,it is possible it is the same guy. anyone know? He could have 'bulked'up to make more of the 'breasts'. I remember him saying that he 'got' alot more women with the breasts, than he did before the operation!I am only interested in finding out if this is that person, or not. Imake no judgments. But it should be a first for Hollywood, if ithappens to be so.

2012-04-17 19:04:51

Jordan & Nolte Deliver

This movie is called The Good Thief. What about Good Grief? The acting was okay (it seemed easy for Nick Nolte to play himself!) The story was dull and uninspiring. When I bought this movie, I thought it was going to be something like Ocean 11, but it wasn't. Instead, it tried to mesh too many different ideas at once. I'd say the worst part about this movie had to do with the girl Nick Nolte was with. What was her purpose, anyway? No one really says why she is even in the movie. There were times I thought this was a low budget movie. In any case, this is a great movie if you want to feel depressed and feel that you're superior in that you could create something better. But if you don't have that as your purpose, don't rent or buy it.Michael

Robert J. Maxwell 2012-04-17 06:38:37

Disjointed, atmospheric Monaco caper flick.

Never having seen the original "Bob le Flambeur" I can't compare it tothis remake. On its own, this one isn't bad as remakes go. It's juicedup, confusing, and noisy but it's engaging too.The first thing one notices is that Nick Nolte as Bob is pretty good.He's older now and a little puffy. His voice is a barely interpretablehoarse whispery croak. If he used to stride a little much, he nowshambles. It fits the part of a recovering junky who lives a squirmingkind of life among the seedier folk of the French Riviera. And hisperformance is better than it sometimes has been. Watch him shiver inthe back seat of a speeding convertible when he begins his withdrawal.The second most noticeable thing is Nutsa Kukhianidze as Anne. We firstmeet her when she's in her underwear and she's thoroughlyunforgettable. First of all, she has this slinky French walk, hernarrow shoulders held back, her hips a little forward, her steps tiny,and her slender arms and dainty hands swinging gracefully. She has thefigure of a gazelle, a little sinew here, a little avoirdupois where itcounts. When she smiles her lips curl in on themselves like DanaDelaney's. She has a boyish haircut, a fluffy Medieval warrior'shelmet. (There's undoubtedly a name for this genre, a French name, butI have no idea what it is.) Her slightly crossed eyes have pronouncedepicanthic folds suggesting that if you shook her family tree a KhalkaMongol might fall out. What I'm trying to say is that she's tiny andscrumptious.The direction is functional. Bodies are efficiently moved about. Imissed the first twenty minutes and found the story confusing becausethat's probably where all the planning for this complicated robberytook place. Anyway, there are no directorial fireworks, except that onoccasion a freeze of a fraction of a second is appended to a shotbefore the cut is made. The device calls attention to itself and addsnothing to the film. It's even used during fast-paced scenes.There's a good deal of slightly bent humor in the script and some goodlines of dialog. The twins who are part of the gang simultaneously say,"Two heads are better than one," and they sleep in twin beds.In another scene, Ralph Feinnes is a fence for stolen art who has beenripped off. He and his burly henchman corner Nolte and Nutsa. Feinnesis enraged that Nolte has given him a fake and claimed it was a genuinePicasso. The dialog is something like this. Nolte: "Sure it's a fakebut it's a very good fake. It was painted by Chester C. Smith, a greatartist." Feinnes: "Well, Kandinsky here (his henchman with the knife)is going to give you a lesson, and what I'm going to do to BOTH yourfaces will definitely be CUBISTIC." I wonder how closely this remake follows the original, because some ofits elements have been used elsewhere to comic effect. The burrowingupward from the underground tunnel goes awry and a gas pipe blows up,so the plan seems to fail. Meanwhile, Nolte and Nutsa are upstairs inthe casino supposedly distracting the police while gambling. Theupstairs feint makes the fortune, while the original plan collapses ina farcical scene. I'm thinking of "Big Deal on Madonna Street" andWoody Allen's "Small Time Crooks." In the end everyone is happy exceptfor the owners of the Casino. Oh, and one bad guy who winds up dead.It's enjoyable in its own slight way.

fredsailer 2012-04-17 00:49:20

A Monte Carlo heist movie, with the usual planning and action, and a fine cast to see it through.

This film appears to be a perfect vehicle for Nolte at this stage ofhis career. He certainly shouldn't attempt to portray the'good looking'older man, but as the worn veteran he makes a stunning presentation.This role seems to parallel Nolte's personal life, and it only assistsin making him more believable, and more likable. Did I forget tomention his heart of gold?The supporting cast of predominantly European actors click well withNolte; not only the female lead is vibrant. Make no mistake, this isnot a one man film; the rest of the cast sparkles, and with an umbrellaof driving music, we become part of his crew.Whether or not the center of the plot, a casino heist, is successful isirrelevant. What takes us along is Mr Nolte's innate roguish charm, andhis slick interplay with his entourage. He does all the right things tokeep us unmarred, and as I mentioned before, the outcome issecondary:the joy is in the ride, not the destination.