Crappy film

Best movie ever!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

When the film begins, Marcos observes a young grifter, Juan, in action. The older and more experienced con-man likes the younger guy's style and offers to teach him the trade. Through much of the day that follows, the pair do a variety of relatively low value cons--nickle and diming unsuspecting folks here and there. However, later in the day Marcos gets word from his sister that there is a dying many asking to see him at her hotel. When Marcos (with Juan in tow) arrives, you can tell that she hates Marcos--and has had lots of reason over the years to feel this way. Regardless, Marcos and Juan visit the sickly man and learn that he's also a con-man-- and was prepared to make a bit killing by selling a nasty mobster some stamps nicknamed 'the 9 queens'. But because the guy is so sick, he wants Marcos to pull off the con--selling the mobster some forged stamps for a fortune. What's next? A lot, believe me...but I don't want to spoil the surprise.This is an excellent swindle and sting sort of picture. It's not as good or stylish as "The Sting", though it is very well made--with some nice acting and a finale that really pays off well. I'd say more but I don't want to ruin the surprises...and there are plenty.

Marcos, an experienced con artist, takes on the young, inexperienced Juan as an apprentice for a day. A call from Marcos's estranged sister gives them a lead to a big opportunity - a forger has created an exact duplicate of a rare set of stamps, the Nine Queens, which he was trying to sell to a stamp collecting, exiled diplomat who will leave the country the next day. When Marcos comes into possession of the stamps, he engages Juan's help to pull off the con. But as the difficulty increases and obstacles keep falling in their way, it becomes more and more difficult to determine who, exactly, is conning who.Like any great con movie, Nueve Reinas is full of deception and lies. The fun part is unraveling who is conning who, and how they are going about it. Was the whole movie one big con, or does it only seem that way to the viewer? How much was planned beforehand, laying in wait for the two main characters to arrive?Any story about lies is also intimately concerned with trust. Juan trusts Marcos to show him the ropes. Marcos' sister tries to convince their younger brother not to trust him. Juan's father trusts him to stay out of trouble and to bail him out of prison.But in this tangle of truth and lies, who is telling the truth? And what are they getting out of it?Family, friends, and lovers? One of this movie's major themes is the importance of family. As Marcos and Juan become caught up in the con of a lifetime, they are also caught up in a web of family intrigues. Marcos, we learn, has taken his sister and younger brother to court in an attempt to gain all of the family inheritance. His sister hates him. His brother still likes him, and seems to trust him despite everything. But when Marcos convinces his sister to do the unthinkable so that he, Marcos, will get money - what does family mean then? And will his brother still be able to love him? Is Marcos really worthy of love?This theme is repeated throughout the film. One of the first cons Marcos pulls is to trick an old woman into thinking that he is her nephew. Juan is trying to make money to help his dad out of prison. To Marcos, it seems that family is a malleable concept meant to be used to your advantage. And yet we see how lonely Marcos is; his one friend (on this day) seems to be Juan. He has betrayed and abandoned everyone else.Do we see a bit of repentance at the end of the movie? Perhaps. Or maybe Marcos is just sad about all the money he didn't get.

Nine Queens follows the activities of two Argentine street-hustlers who team-up as partners for a day. Juan is a young man whose good looks and innocent appearance give him an advantage over the women that he cheats. He was taught some tricks of the trade by his father who is now in prison awaiting trial and regrets teaching his son how to steal. Marcos, the older of the two men, attempts to open Juan's eyes to the scams that are going on everywhere around them in the streets of Buenos Aires, where every thief claims not to be a thief. He sees Juan as being naive because the younger man expresses some sympathy for his victims and puts limits on what he will take from them. Marcos has no such remorse. He thinks of having a conscience as ridiculous and a hindrance to his trade.The action suddenly becomes more intense when a former partner of Marcos introduces the pair to the scam of a lifetime. The man has counterfeited a sheet of nine rare stamps, worth hundreds of thousands if genuine. He plans to sell the stamps each of which display the image of a woman in profile, the nine queens, to a billionaire stamp collector. Unable to carry out the sale himself, the forger enlists Marcos' help in selling the stamps. Things quickly devolve into a series of struggles over who will get what percentage of the take as everyone who becomes involved uses their skills to overcome the obstacles to the sale, leaving the viewer uncertain about who is the hustler and who is being hustled.The story is fast-paced and well-acted. Dialogue is in Spanish with English and French subtitles.

this movie is excellent, though I noticed it only after 30 minutes.a week ago, I saw the first 25 minutes of it. I was thinking all the time 'what junk is this? why am I wasting my life with it?' so I turned it off.two days ago, I watched 5 minutes more of it. I was really certain it was not the kind of movie I like.but I'm an obsessive movie freak. I want to see every movie there ever was and ever will be. I hope that when I'm dead, I still will be able to watch the movies to come after my death.that's why I watched the rest of the movie yesterday. wow, I was wrong! this movie is so great! so terribly good! the acting performances are fantastic (with a shocking ending well done), the storyline is well worked out, the music is at it's place, the sounds are promising, ...if you want to see a good foreign movie, don't hesitate to watch this one.