Who payed the critics

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Crime is a 2003 film based on a foreign one, Nueve Reinas.Rodrigo (Diego Luna) is a young Mexican male who, while in a casino, tries the old screwing up the waitress so she gives the wrong change con, when he's spotted by Richard (John C. Reilly). He gets Richard out of the casino by claiming to be a cop.Richard no longer has a partner, so he offers to take on Rodrigo. Rodrigo has a little money but he needs more to pay his father's gambling debts.Richard has his own problems, namely, his sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal) whom Richard cheated, along with their brother, out of their part of their mother's estate. She's suing him.Richard is contacted by a businessman, once an associate of his, who wants help selling a forged treasury note to someone who needs to leave the country the next day due to his visa expiring. Another man intrudes on the deal, and Richard needs more money and asks Rodrigo to use his savings. John C. Reilly is a wonderful actor. Here, playing a crook through and through, a racist, an anti-Semite, a man who cons his own family, he's excellent, actually bringing humor to a character who is reprehensible. He was actually cast as Stanley Kowalski in the Natalie Richardson "Streetcar Named Desire," a casting I'll never understand, although I'm sure he was excellent, if the wrong type.Diego Luna is sweet and unassuming as Richard's partner, who seems out of his depth.I felt this film moved a little slowly and also, I have to admit that I'm tired of this type of plot. I saw it coming a mile away. It was somewhat fresh 40 years ago. No more.I love suspense, mystery, crime drama, etc., so I wonder how many of this type of movie I'll have to sit through over the next 30 years.However, it has entertainment value and good performances, and if you don't watch these films as much as I do, you may love it. Hope so.

Criminal is a good movie to see if you didn't see the original Nueve Reinas. The main problem with Criminal is not the acting (very good), is the intention to transplant a crown city stereotype to a 'open wide town' like Los Angeles. This movie belongs to cities like New York or the original in Buenos Aires. The problem is about cultural references that people that live in oldest big cities known and do not exist in open spaces. A con man on foot, like the one in the original is proper of immigrant cultures that need to 'invent' some tricks to get money when there are not work to take. Some people use this tricks as a life medium. In the original film the main character is a whole SoB, in this movie that position is not clear. In the original movie the main character never find out that he was tricky and lost all his money, in this movie he receive an invalid check, so he was clearly framed. If this movie would be made in New York or other crow city a on foot con man that 'make his day' could be credible, a con man on car, traveling Los Angeles is not credible. Next time adapting movies please think on 'cultural references'. The movie is good, but not credible, instead the original Nueve Reinas represent cultural values from a city of immigrants like Buenos Aires

First of all the acting was okay, the screenplay and the idea for the story was completely unoriginal. The main character walks into a bar, rescue's a criminal and ask's him to be his partner, fair enough with his story about how his other partner is somewhere else la-de-da, but throughout the movie it seems the whole deal is going on for one day or so, I mean they never go home take a shower, whatever and already it seems they're living a life long marriage. Also another thing about him hiring this obviously from a one look point of view amateur, he obviously didn't do a good job the first time around, so why be so desperate to hire him? to be honest if I were a con artist, I would at least be careful as to who I chose. It's not exactly a matter of who puts their hand up first kinda thing. Now I compared this movie to another one, Matchstick Men. Mainly because it had the same idea, one man was being conned by the person he was teaching kind of thing, and after watching that movie. This one seemed highly obvious. A good movie is one which keeps you guessing no matter how many more there are like it. A good movie is unpredictable, suspenseful and leaves you wandering what the heck is going on. Now as soon as the amateur said something along the lines of "YOUR CONNING ME!" I immediately knew he had something to hide. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. With matchstick men, now there's an original idea, his kid comes into the picture and everything is all ladeda, and he finds out he's being hit on the head with his own hammer. But the thing that got me interested in this movie is the personality, he had some mental disorders and we got to see that, the movie let us get captivated by the characters and their very different lives. This movie Criminal, I learned nothing about the main man apart from that him and his sister didn't get along, that's the only thing I remembered. and to be honest he was a jerk and I wasn't disappointed once when he got arrested. basically at the end of the movie the only thing I was disappointed at was that I spent $1.00 hiring it out, and $1 isn't even that much where I live. Some clever bits here and there, but not enough for me to give it more than a four. I enjoyed Mary Poppins a lot better...

A great film! I had never heard of it until I saw it in a video store, as far as I knew, it was straight to video. I picked it up, read the back and saw it was produced by George clooney. and George Clooney doesn't make mistakes (Except oceans 12 and batman&robin). So I figured it had to be a good movie. John C. Riley makes a great con artist in this film where he and Diego Luna as another con artist team up to con a rare counterfeit bill for a huge amount of money. Along the way they have to pull several small cons together. It all pulls together in the end with an awesome twist comparable to "Usual Suspects" and "Murder on the orient express"