An American crime film directed by Frank Oz, starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando.
A professional safe-cracker who runs a jazz club is contacted by a fellow criminal about a big job. The "inside man" works as a cleaner at the location and pretends to be retarded. Together, they work out a plan to get past a very complex security system and steal a priceless artifact.
This was pretty standard, "stock". The plot was typical of crime-heist genre films of the time. I thought the characters were cast well and their acting was convincing. The video was good quality and the editing was dynamic, changing pace with the on-screen action. The soundtrack was actually so good that I didn't notice it. Everything sounded correct at the right times and the club scenes featured decent jazz. Overall, not too shabby. I rate it adequate because it's "good enough" without going for any extra credit.
A drama by Neil Burger, starring Edward Norton and Jessica Biel.A boy meets a magician on a road who shows him a few magic tricks and disappears. The boy becomes enchanted with magic tricks and learns them. A girl finds him performing and goes to his house with him. Her parents find her there and forbid her to see him again. They continue their friendship and are found out. The boy leaves soon after to travel the world and comes back home as a skilled illusionist. The first "audience volunteer" at his show is his childhood friend.I'm tired of 2000s films like this. It's just over-produced trash. The plots and characters are supposed to seem interesting, but are completely empty. The style is supposed to look amazing and perfect, but that's just the way that it was over-produced. This was mildly entertaining at best. I'm rating it poor.
