I like movies that center around the "con." It is like watching a complicated puzzle being put together. You pay attention to everything. Moreover, as each little event happens, you analyze the potential hidden importance of it. In
"Criminal", you follow Reilly's character as he comes up with various ways to scam people. His character is a somewhat heartless individual that stopped
having a conscience sometime ago. Still, there is something to him that gives you empathy for the character. Needing a new partner, he recruits a young
confidence man (Luna). Right after recruiting this new partner (in a somewhat random way), the two of them plot a major con. This con is elaborate and rather clever. It is the kind of con that would take months to develop and countless hours of rehearsal. Hence the problem.
(SPOILER ALERT).
This movie has the inevitable big twist at the end. The switch is that the
character played by Luna, is actually scamming Reilly's character. As I watched the first 80 minutes of this film, I really enjoyed it. However, the last two minutes killed it. Why? Because the implausible ending made the whole rest of the film insane. There is no way this elaborate scheme could have been run. After all, it was Reilly that sought out Luna, not the other way. The elaborate set of events that were set up for the big sting were all designed to take place that day. How? How could these relations have been developed? They could not have been.
Great performances, but the ending was just stupid! I know that this movie is a re-do of an Argentinian film, this does not bother me. However, if the Argentinian film had the same implausible ending as this one, it should not have been
copied at all.
"Criminal", you follow Reilly's character as he comes up with various ways to scam people. His character is a somewhat heartless individual that stopped
having a conscience sometime ago. Still, there is something to him that gives you empathy for the character. Needing a new partner, he recruits a young
confidence man (Luna). Right after recruiting this new partner (in a somewhat random way), the two of them plot a major con. This con is elaborate and rather clever. It is the kind of con that would take months to develop and countless hours of rehearsal. Hence the problem.
(SPOILER ALERT).
This movie has the inevitable big twist at the end. The switch is that the
character played by Luna, is actually scamming Reilly's character. As I watched the first 80 minutes of this film, I really enjoyed it. However, the last two minutes killed it. Why? Because the implausible ending made the whole rest of the film insane. There is no way this elaborate scheme could have been run. After all, it was Reilly that sought out Luna, not the other way. The elaborate set of events that were set up for the big sting were all designed to take place that day. How? How could these relations have been developed? They could not have been.
Great performances, but the ending was just stupid! I know that this movie is a re-do of an Argentinian film, this does not bother me. However, if the Argentinian film had the same implausible ending as this one, it should not have been
copied at all.