Ordinary Decent Criminal

What led me to watch this movie was the DVD box that said something to the tune of if you liked Ocean's Eleven (presumably referring to the remake) or Italian Job (again, the remake) than you will like this movie. I took that to mean this was another one of those con heist criminal movies and well, I was right. (Or is it the box that is right?)

Anyways, this flick was just average, perhaps slightly better than average. Kevin Spacey turns in a very solid performance as Michael Lynch, who is the ordinary criminal in the movie. The idea is he is such a decent man in life ---so how could he be a criminal? Well, when you get down to it, it's cause he likes to show-off. And that is something Michael Lynch is very good at.

The film is more manufactured than realistic as when they steal the Caravaggio I don't think it would take so long for guards to collapse on them. I also don't think they would be able to defend themselves by simply putting up the 30 million dollar painting in front of them. Don't these guards have snipers or more accurate weapons? All they ever carry are machine guns.

I couldn't pin point what makes this different than Ocean's Eleven or Italian Job. It could be the cast. Although Colin Farrell makes a small appearance, there really aren't anymore big name actors. Well, I can't forget everyone had to be able to speak with an Irish accent in this movie. But it could also be that nobody accepts the ludicrity of what they are doing. In Ocean's Eleven, there is that scene where Carl Reiner's character asks those questions and then takes a pill after finding out how unlikely success is. For some reason, this is supposed to be a decent living for Michael.

And moreover, we find him alive at the end, isolated. A smile is on his face. And what kind of life is that? The family thinks he is dead and he's off smirking around.

I give this a 6/10.





It's entertaining. Kevin Spacey does well as Michael Lynch. But the one problem is it just doesn't harbor what Ocean's Eleven and Italian Job does.