“It’s all confidence,” main character Jake Vig declares (Ed Burns), a slick and charming conman who leads an assembled group of conmen into some of the most brilliant cons. Taking a page right out of the classic “The Sting”, a group of professional conmen pull a fast job on a schmuck at a club, but when they discover that the schmuck they duped was about to deliver his money to mob boss Winston King, one of their men is killed and now they must confront King. King, a rather erratic but threatening boss makes a deal with them: if they pull a job on his rival Morgan Price he’ll give them a cut of the money and let them live, now with many uneasy partnerships with a few new conmen, a difficulties with an investigator who is on their tail, they must pull the con and not get arrested. But who is getting conned? And who can be trusted?
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Ripper (2001)
Director John Eyres does manage to capture the appropriate mood for a film with a concept such as this. The set pieces range from grim, to bleak, to bright, to sometimes very sleek, plus he manages to take an old tired horror device: a dark and stormy forest and manages to make it a bit tense with some suspense clearly evident to the audience awaiting the identity of the killer. Jack the Ripper, the famous or infamous serial killer has been fodder for horror movies for decades, and as always is the case, every new movie attempts to put a different spin on the serial killer, attempts to turn and twist, and flip the serial killer into a new movie, but alas, there are very few movies that can take the most interesting serial killer of all time and turn him into a good film.
40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
Matt is a guy who just broke up with his life-long girlfriend Nicole. After two years of a bad break-up he’s finding it difficult to get over her, and after one meaningless sexual encounter after another with women, he feels empty inside. One day he decides to make a vow, no sex or sexual encounters for forty days. But he’s finding it difficult when all the people at his job begin to bet he’ll either break it or pull through tempting him with hot chicks, plus he’s met a beautiful girl (Shannyn Sassimon) that he’s falling in love with. Something’s got to give.
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
In the chaotic tradition of “Dr. Strangelove”, the controversial “Buffalo Soldiers” based on the book by Robert O’Connor, is another dark cynical look at the U.S. military in mayhem, chaos, and anarchy while being run by psychotic or incompetent officers is a truly odd and some times far out dark comedy that was shelved due to its massive slurring of the U.S. Military as thought by many, though I prefer to see it as a farce of the U.S. Military. Spawning a stir from audiences, some of which becoming violent and screaming that this film was Un-American, It shows soldiers who are so bored during the period of the cold war they’re resorting to drugs, gambling, and violence to ease their boredom, but this film, while sometimes very intense and extremely odd in the area of the Cohen Brothers is a rather enjoyable yarn that should be watched by anyone who loves dark comedies.
Grind (2003)
What do you do with a movie about skateboarders that hasn’t already been done? Fill it with the same lazy clichés we’ve seen thousands of times in worse comedy films. I mean has there ever been a good movie about skateboarding aside from “Dogtown and Z-Boys”? I doubt it. There are three elements/concepts films have revolved around and relied on for a plot in the past that have never worked regardless of how exciting they try to make it, and regardless of how good a director is: skiing (cannot be done), skateboarding, and computers or typing on a computer (FYI “Wargames” invented the sub-genre).
Narc (2002)
On the surface “Narc” looks like just another cop film about two officers trying to solve a murder, but deep within the surface of the story and concept, this is really a tragedy, a heartbreaking tragedy about two men with demons they can’t escape. Both are a paradox; One officer, is a man who has everything to live for, he’s a family man, the other has nothing to live for, no life, but a great job, the only thing that really links them is their past and the determination to solve a murder and redeem their sins. In the climactic police raid, Patric and Liotta’s character present the paradox to the audience; Officer Nick Tellis (Patric) slips on a bullet proof vest, and protection and carefully slithers his way into the building, while Officer Henry Oak (Liotta) charges into the building like an adrenaline filled bull with a shotgun and walks in shooting without a moments hesitation.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
They were the bass guitars in “My Girl”, they were the pianos in “Cool Jerk” and “You’ve Really Got a hold on me”, and they were the drums in “Ain’t too Proud to Beg” and “Heatwave”, they were “The Funk Brothers”, the most under-appreciated band in music who had more number one hits than the Beatles, Elvis, and the Rolling Stones combined, the people who Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder loved to hang around and learn from as the modern artists featured in the documentary do. Not only does this pay tribute to the artists but it gives them a spotlight of glory that they were never given. The Funk Brothers were a group of men who were a mixture of talented jazz, soul, and club musicians whom were assembled by Motown founder Berry Gordy to play the music to his artists songs, and though some came from different cities and were of different races they became brothers nonetheless.