Hey folks, Harry here with two looks at Section 8's remake of NINE QUEENS called CRIMINAL. We've got two, very different takes on it. One from a reader familiar with the brilliant original, and the second who knew nothing other than the film before her. The first was disappointed, the second liked it quite a bit. Here ya go and beware of spoilers...
Harry;
I just saw a screening of CRIMINAL, the movie produced by Soderbergh, and Clooney, directed by Soderbergh long time AD, starring John C. Reilly and Diego Luna.
As you may know Criminal is a remake of an Argentinean movie called NINE QUEENS.
CRIMINAL is another bad re-make of a great film. Everything that made NINE QUEENS great makes CRIMINAL bad.
For starter NINE QUEENS is about two guys that "work" the streets of Buenos Aires, and what other way to work the streets are there than walking, Buenos Aires is a walking city, kind of like New York, Buenos Aires is a character in NINE QUEENS. In CRIMINAL they spent half the say on a brand new Benz. The movie takes place in LA, which is not a walking city, so you never get a feel for the city that is so important in the original. But the biggest failure is in the casting, especially Reilly. Reilly is a great character actor, notice I said character actor. He can't carry a movie by himself, never has, and certainly he did no in this case. The only way we can care about his character is if he is charming, and funny, and Reilly is either, this movie calls for someone like Clooney himself, or even Ed Burns in Confidential.
The chemistry between the two main characters never works, you don't care for either one, and with out caring for them the movie is pointless.
The story is great, so I'd recommend to anyone who has an inch of curiosity to check this movie out to go to the nearest blockbuster and rent NINE QUEENS.
Hope you'll post this
next, Garbo Talks... and she's never heard of NINE QUEENS and didn't bring that wonderful baggage in with her...
Hey Cool Folks,
I'm a huge fan of the site but this is my first direct missive to y'all. Tonight I found myself in a test screening in Hollywood for a new WB movie called "Criminal"- starring John C. Reilly and Diego Luna (of Y Tu Mama Tambien fame). Maggie Gyllenhaal, hottie that she is, also plays a pivotal role. I went in without any preconceived notions either way and must say that I came out the other side feeling like this one is genuinely a smart, twisty-turny ride. Not to say that it's perfect. They announced that this is the first screening and some of that shows. There are definitely some chinks in the armor. But more on that later.
Since this is a con-man movie with a big twist, I'll abstain from revealing the big spoiler. Here's the basic deal. The movie is a gritty, realistic look at the life of two guys from different sides of the tracks in L.A. J.C. Reilly is a professional con-artist who drives a Lexus and wears a suit and Diego is a poor kid from East L.A. John C. considers himself high end but he needs a new partner to pull off his schemes. With his sights on the young, scruffy Diego - J.C.R. comes up with a way to save the kid from getting busted by posing as a cop. The opening scene is slick and jarring as the two are thrown together at a seedy casino and small-time Diego reluctantly agrees to give it a go for the day with this cocky pro.
J.C.R. proceeds to school Diego on the ins and outs of scams. This is small-scale spoiler stuff! But, there's a great scene in an elevator where Diego proves his metal by betting his partner that he can get a woman to give him her purse in under a couple minutes. He fakes an elevator emergency, climbs out, and the woman hands it over. Genius.
The movie really gets cooking when we hit the big scam. Maggie G., JCR's sister in the movie, works at a fancy downtown hotel in L.A. She calls John after one of his former partners makes a scene in the hotel.
It turns out that this guy is trying to sell some forged copies of very expensive rare currency to a super rich collector who is staying at the hotel. But he's too old and sick to pull off the deal. For our guys, this is the scam of a lifetime and JCR sees the angle right away. Much bigger than the small time stuff we've seen them pull off all day. For a minute there, they seem to get what they want? not for long though. Their greed takes hold and sucks them deep into a complex web. Everything imaginable goes wrong and it culminates with a shocking hurdle. BIG SPOILER HERE - In order to pull of the deal, John C. has to convince his sister to sleep with the rich collector. Imagine asking your sister to sleep with someone so you can make big money! We're in the land of low-tech con movies like THE GRIFTERS -tough and shocking.
Which brings me to what I dug most about this movie - it's the performance of a lifetime for John C. Reilly. (He's one of my personal favorites.) Gone are the days of his roles as the weepy guy whose wife is cheating on him (I think he actually had 2 of those last year alone.) Here, he gets to play a real dick. Funny, his character name is Richard (Dick). But he's a dick that we love to hate. He's a selfish, racist, a'hole, who preys on anyone and everyone - from old ladies to his own family. He seems to be channeling Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle in the guise of a con man.
Now for the negative - I'm not going to say what the ending is- (even with a spoiler alert, with this kind of movie, it's just too cruel) but we end up feeling like all of LA must have been in on the con. Also, the ending doesn't quite measure up to the rest of the movie. That's a big deal here - because we want to feel as good as we did when Brian Singer spun our heads at the end of USUAL SUSPECTS.
All in all, it's DEFINITELY worth seeing. It's a really fresh character piece disguised as a con-movie.
Does anyone out there know who the director is? It nails the underbelly of LA and the bizarre but unforgettable relationship between JCR and Diego reminds me of Voight and Hoffman in MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Could it be the ghost of John Schlesinger?? There were no credits on the movie so I'm curious to know who's behind it.
Well, there you have it.
Signing off,
Garbo
