Confidence

Three and a half rounded up mostly for the sensational Dustin Hoffman. Had he been given a little more space, had Burns played better (or had someone else replaced him), and had there not been a slight ennui at times, those stars might have been proper. (09/05/2010)

A surprisingly sterile imitation of Ocean's Eleven and its sequels and other heist movies, with the only clear shock in the form of the null actors. They don't actually act, they just cheaply parade in front of the camera. This applies to both Rachel Weisz (with whom, first of all, it doesn't really bother you, and second of all, her role directly calls for it) and the so proclaimed duo of Dustin Hoffman-Andy Garcia. Technically, there is not much to criticize, but the editing at the end in particular infuriated me, where it is shown how everything is and who is involved with whom, which is so desperately predictable that it erases all the potential charge of the previous adventures in an instant. (08/13/2006)

Heists, double-crosses and another supremely cunning protagonist. And of course, everything is different than it seems at first glance. We’ve seen it a hundred times in other films, which are perhaps not as dynamic and fast-paced, but definitely clearer and ultimately more effective. (07/31/2003)