Absolutely Fantastic

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There are no truly original heist/con movies left. Not any more, not ever again. But seeing Will Smith be Will Smith again (finally)? That was fun. Here's to fewer alien fighters and more real characters moving forward, Will. That's what movie stardom should look like. Hopefully next time you have a more original story to go with it.

Just watched "Focus", a movie which made some buzz 2-3 years ago mainly because the rumored romance between the two main actors, Will Smith and Margot Robbie. I don't know what they actually did off-screen, but on-screen they have no chemistry at all.Focus is a movie about con-artists. It doesn't try to follow the steps of "The Sting" or "Ocean's eleven", but it has the same goal, to confuse the audience on who is playing who... and here is where the problems are starting to arise...The plot is paper thin and every con seems unnecessary and overcomplicated. There aren't that too many cons to begin with, but every one of them seems forced. A futile effort from the writers, to "amaze" the audience.You see, to make the audience to expect a twist is basically a bad thing. Even the average viewer had, possibly, better twists in mind than those in "Focus". More plausible and more fun to watch. Here the tricks are too over-the-top in their execution to swallow, and overall unimpressive, leaving a bad aftertaste...The movie looks colorful, but the acting is pale. Will Smith seems bored possibly because of an early realization that this movie won't work.Overall: Not a satisfying movie, including the lukewarm ending. The twists you expecting from a con-artist's movie are there, but they are unclever and forced. Maybe its time to dust that DVD of "The Sting" from the selves....

I would of rated the film a 9 if it just continued in the first half as a good, flashy, stylish and intelligent film but the second half then turned the film into another horrible Mr And Mrs Smith all because of Margot Robbie and Will Smith's romance. I was cautious about rating this film as high as I did at first, but then I decided that I would because the first half was so good, but the second half was a real stinker and deserved a 5. The film had so much potential at the start but then just slipped off the rails, I guess, and I never actually thought that I could of felt this way for a movie before. The cinematography could of also been a lot better, but because the editing is so good, the humour is funny and the fact that the first half was genius I think I will say that I enjoyed this. Watch the first half of the film, then imagine up a second half, no need for a long review.

"Focus" is an American 100-minute movie from 2015, so by now it is two years old. It was written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, a duo of filmmakers that has collaborated for a really long time and this resulted in some good and some not so good works apparently. I guess this one here is somewhere in-between, maybe closer to the not so good. It features Will Smith and Margot Robbie as the lead actors and while both are really big names, I still don't see that great talent in both of them, especially Robbie. They aren't bad actors, but they are also far from convincing unfortunately when their characters require true range and depth and they can only partially may make up for these shortcoming with their great deal of charisma. Then again, they fit nicely in here because this movie (and the script in particular) are also about make-believe. The two filmmakers I mentioned earlier definitely need a lesson in subtlety. There are many many scenes and moments, and eventually the entire film, where they go way over the top and not in a good way at all. The first meeting between the two protagonists is a good example. Yes they want to depict that teacher-student relationship and show us how skilled Smith is, but all those tricks, all that he steals from her is just too much. Half of the items would really have been enough. This is a bit of shame as the "angry boyfriend" scene before that was actually not too bad. And there are more food scenes like the one with BD Wong (he gave a nice supporting performance and is probably among Asia's best in Hollywood right now), which was somewhat fun to see and the best thing is you don't even have to care about American Football to appreciate it because I sure don't. But these bright moments are quickly made up for and the negative element wins eventually. It's all so pompous, pseudo-intelligent and exaggerated that it's almost impossible to appreciate the film as a whole. Robbie and Smith are just means for the story and they also do not manage to elevate the script. The weakest moment of the film is probably the ending. I was tempted to give it a better rating before that final scene with Smith's character's father, but lets be honest here. A dad who shoots his brother in the chest (even with the medical justification) is just too much and this is where the film really loses it all and hits rock-bottom. I guess you can check this one out if you really care a lot about the world of con men, but it is still not a satisfying take and elaboration on the subject either. So maybe only check it out if you are a huge Smith and/or Robbie fan. Otherwise skip it and you are not missing much, especially not in terms of realism and fraud as the biggest trick pulled off in here was to make audiences believe this is actually a convincing work. Thumbs down.