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NOTE: Contains a Major Spoiler

In the early part of this decade, the public received multiple movies that had practically the same plot (albeit in a different location); an old master thief wants to pull one more major job before he rides off into the sunset and retires. And, hey, each one of them had the old thief having some form of relationship with a “younger” lady. One of these movies goes by the name The Good Thief.

The Good Thief, starring Nick Nolte, is a remake of a 1956 French film called Bob le flambeur (Bob the High Roller). The story follows Bob (Nolte), a retired thief who is now a heroin addict. Bob decides that he has one more major job left in him and decides to get clean and pull off one of the greatest heists known to man; that being cleaning out a major casino of all of its money. So, since Bob wants to pull off this heist, he has to put together a ragtag team of some…uh…interesting characters. They aren’t really all that interesting, but, for the lack of a better word, that’s all I could come up with. The problem is that there is a Detective, who just so happens to be Bob’s friend, that believes that there is something fishy going on and starts tailing Bob. And, of course, there are a bunch of twists that attempt to keep the movie interesting.

The movie did have some potential. There is some decent acting coming from Nolte but, it isn’t as great as other critics claim it to be. Some claim that Nolte was born to play Bob; if by that they are claiming that he was born to play a heroin addict that has a relationship with a young French chick, then, I guess they are right. The other thing that the movie has going for it is the writing. The writing, minus the humor and some of the twists, keeps the movie interesting.

The problems with the movie would be perceived as rather minimal, but, they are a tad bit annoying. The first problem is the love story between Nolte and the French chick. There really isn’t any chemistry between the two and the thought of Nolte possibly fucking this chick is a rather nasty thought. The “humor” is another problem in the movie. It’s a problem mainly for the fact that it really isn’t needed. Its only purpose is to fill in some gaps to extend the time. The “twists” are also an area that causes some qualms and that’s because the twists are extremely predictable. It’s almost to the point that you actually don’t have to be paying attention to the movie to actually figure out what’s going to happen.

Some of the shot selections are also a cause for some problems. For some reason the director, Neil Jordan, decided that he would stylize the movie and thrown in some shots of random slow motion and have the movie edited in such a way that almost every scene just pauses, which is a lot the mandatory pause in a DVD, before the movie goes to another scene. The last problem with the movie, which is where the spoiler comes in, is the ending of the movie. The problem with the ending is that we never actually see the “true” heist. Instead of seeing that heist, we sit around and watch Bob gamble; winning a shitload of money from the casino.
The Good Thief isn’t the best heist movie ever made and does have its problems, but, it is a pretty decent movie. It is worth, at least, one reviewing and that’s because the actors in this movie don’t give off the vibe that they are just dialing in a performance like they did in the other, similar movies (Heist and The Score).

Final Synopsis: If you like movies with some decent acting and a bunch of twists, then this movie is for you. However, if you like your movies to actually have twists that aren’t predictable than skip it.

Points Lost: -1 for the love story. -1 for weak humor moments. -1 for predictable twists. –1 for the random slow motion/ stopping moments in the movie. -1 for making us watch Bob gamble, instead of seeing the actually heist.

Lesson Learned: Young French chicks will throw their vaginas at anyone, including Nick Nolte wrinkly old body.

Burning Question: If you aren’t trying to attract the attention of the police, why would you surround yourself with sketchy looking people and a man/woman bodybuilder?

The Good Thief
5/10

Tags: 2003, crime, drama, Jason Flemyng, latest movie review, Neil Jordan, Nick Nolte, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Ralph Fiennes, recent, Remake