Pretty Good

As Good As It Gets

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I liked the idea of this whole conscience transfer thing or whatever it was. There were some brilliantly done action scenes too but all in all it was too long and in the end I almost fell asleep. Especially in the middle of the film when there were those 'tender moments' with the family of the character of Ryan Reynolds. I didn't like the character of Kevin Costner either. They tried to make him more sympathetic but that failed in my opinion. It is an easily forgettable and mostly boring film.

An excellent action suspense movie, with a little sci fi thrown in. Costner really convinces in this role. Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones are also credible. Memory action films seem to have their own genre now. But this one uses real science, though somewhat of a leap, to give it credibility. It also asks the question and tries to answer, who we really are. Is it the Fromtal lobe of the brain and theta waves that determine good and evil? Are we the sum of our memories and experiences? Or is it all of the above? It does all this while still giving us a good action suspense plot. This review is probably the largest margin between the average reviewer and myself on this site. I don't get how they can trash this. I highly recommend it.

Criminal is a convoluted and messy film that rips off Face/Off and The Bourne Identity type of movies.Young CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) is tortured and electrocuted to death in London by a Spanish anarchist who is after a Dutch hacker that Bill is protecting.The CIA operative Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) keeps Bill from being brain dead and asks Dr Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) to do an experimental procedure to transfer Bill's memories to a dangerous and violent top security prisoner Jerico Stewart (Kevin Costner) qualified for this medical procedure as he has an underdeveloped frontal lobe.Jerico seeks out Bill's widow Jillian (Gal Gadot) and his daughter and slowly he gains Bill's memories as well as skills.There is an all star cast but they are manly wasted. Ryan Reynolds is killed off early into the film. Oldman shouts a lot, Lee Jones just makes a wasted cameo. Costner plays his gruff, unsympathetic character which he has been playing for the last quarter of a century.The film is really a B film with some naff special effects, choppy editing and sloppy writing.

I'm not sure who Ariel Vromen is, nor am I familiar with his work, but honestly, I have to imagine that this man, or somebody heavily involved in this film, was owed one hell of a favor from someone up top in Summit, Lionsgate or Hollywood, because this director had a star studded cast that he did little, to nothing with... a cast that had no reason to say yes to being a part of this movie - especially Ryan - but they did anyway.Gal Gadot, may not be the best actor out there, but, she is A-List and well worth a watch, but, lets say she isn't enough to guarantee commercial success and a fierce Mystery Action Thriller. You then have Gary Oldman (who's role I feel is probably the most idiotic he has ever taken) and Tommy Lee Jones. And lets just say that wealth of experience is also not enough... Kevin Costner steps in too! All of that, including Ryan Reynolds, who's talents had no business being in this movie - which probably explains why he is uncredited - also joined the party, and on composition, Brian Tyler. Somebody pulled some strings, and Criminal had it all... then did nothing with it.This movie is boring. Just put simply. The story, so promising, but even worse, so squandered. Badly edited, badly directed, and all around badly executed. Tommy was incredibly underused, Gary's character was an idiot. Ryan is too big for his role. For Gadot, this was a pay check, and Kevin Costner, with a much better director, would've been right for his role.I was ready to give Criminal 4/10, but something happened in the film that warranted a bump to 5/10... What that was, I can't remember. It must be Billy's memories and personality that affected my brain through the movie. And Ryan, don't think we've forgotten that right before this film, you starred in Self/Less! However, I still have nothing but love for you.Criminal had the potential to be a wicked, gangster hit. Sadly, what they did with it, was just, Criminal.