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The Score

The Score

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good popcorn movie
Review: Let's just say this: it does what it sets out to do. The three main actors (DeNiro, Brando, and Norton) are all terrific, although Angela Bassett is wasted in the girlfriend role (perhaps she had more that was edited out). This is one of the many recent "last big score" films and it is perfect. It doesn't make you think and it's entertaining. Had it been more action-filled, I might have suspected Jerry Bruckheimer's hand in it. Includes another amazing double performance from Edward Norton (see Primal Fear). Suspenseful, only marred by a fully predictable twist (just one) at the end.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie
Review: Well i'm not much of a movie critic,but as a simple girl next door,i loved this movie.All actors were exeptional,especially Edward Norton,who i think is the finest actor of my generation,it wasnt by all means his best movie,but enjoyable none the less.He held his own with Brando and De Niro,and that alone takes some doing.
I guess i wouldnt recommend this movie for you,if you are looking for some big action flick,but if you are content with incredible acting,the best you will ever find in fact,pretty well though out plot,good dialoge,then by all means,dont miss this.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why did I pay to see this in a theater?
Review: I saw this movie with a friend, both of us having the expectation of a suspenseful movie. The only suspense found was trying to remember how much longer I would be stuck in the movie. It is a very bad sign to leave a movie feeling that a ticket to Jurassic Park III would have been a better investment.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bad
Review: Fortunately for me, I rented it.
This movie is really bad.
It lags and drags for an hour and 45 minutes, and then suddenly and out of nowhere comes the action.

The ending is expected.

-RoNNY

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A nicely crafted caper flick
Review: This is a nicely crafted caper flick with a talented cast and a well conceived story. The heist genre has been heavily sown over the years, so it is difficult to come up with a truly fresh storyline. Still, there have been so many bad heist films that to see one of this caliber is a treat.

Robert DeNiro plays Nick, a thief who wants to do one big job to get out of the business. Marlon Brando is Max, the fence who brings Nick together with Jack (Edward Norton), the inside man who conceived the job. This standard setup is far from original and is a staple of this type of film. What makes it excel is the way it unfolds. Director Frank Oz, steps out from his outstanding career with the Muppets to take on a completely different type of project, performing quite admirably. Oz unwinds the tale deliberately, taking time to develop relationships and motivations usually missing from heist flicks. The result is an extremely believable yarn with characters whose behavior is consistent with motivations revealed throughout the film.

The story, which is a collaborative effort by four writers of little renown, is very tight. They do a good job of creating a story that evolves effectively, adapting ingeniously to each little wrinkle they introduce. While the probability of a double cross is pretty transparent, the ending twists a couple of times, first giving the viewer what he has been set up to expect and then delivering the unexpected. That is good storytelling.

The acting is uniformly good from a cast of accomplished actors. DeNiro doesn't break any new ground with this character, but Nick is so familiar to him that he can't help but deliver a terrific portrayal. This may not be a career performance for DeNiro, but there are few actors I can think of who could have played this character any better. Marlon Brando is a legend, of course, but he has not done anything of consequence since "Apocalypse Now" (1979). Even that was a kind of grotesquely twisted character that came nowhere near some of his great performances starting with "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) through "Godfather" (1972). This is the first film I have seen him in since 1979 that shows a glimmer of his true acting ability. Though it is a small role, Brando interprets the character with subtle undertones and a raw power that we haven't seen from him in many years.

The new kid on the block (by comparison), but no less talented is Edward Norton. I have been impressed by Norton's audacious style with each new film he has made. Once again he adds to his range with this film, delivering a fantastic imitation of a palsied man as a cover for his inside work. However, this is only a footnote to an otherwise powerful performance. He conjures a seething arrogance and cunning resolve in a character determined to show the old timers how he is really the best and smartest of them all. This is a fine addition to a growing resume of Norton's exceptional performances.

Though Angela Bassett's character is really superfluous, I must give her credit for an excellent job. Bassett infuses great emotion and sincerity into a character that is little more than a motivational point of reference for Nick's behavior. Still, she plays every scene flat out, making the most of a limited opportunity.

I was very impressed with this film on a number of levels. I rated it a 9/10 on the strength of how it compares with the genre. Even taken in a broader context, I would give it a 7/10 or 8/10 because it is such good filmmaking. Though a bit slow for the action junkie, it is an engaging film with plenty of entertainment value.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Suspenseful Film
Review: If you're a Robert DeNiro fan, you'll enjoy this film. The co-stars are Marlon Brando, Edward Norton and Angela Bassett. The film starts out showing Deniro, who plays the thief Nick, a 25-year vet, narrowly escaping a heist. He goes back to Montreal where he lives and owns a jazz club. With appearances by Angela Bassett, who plays Nick's girlfriend, we discover she agrees to get more serious provided he quit his robbery "business" on the side. Marlon Brando then offers Nick the chance for a big payoff, one that will set him straight and allow him to pay off the mortgage on the jazz club and quit. It would be his last gig. It's tempting, but risky. The one catch is that the heist is right in Montreal, which goes against Nick's Number 1 rule, never pull a heist where you live or work. To top it all off, Edward Norton is introduced as the character Jack Teller. Jack's front is the mentally [handicapped] character "Brian" who works the night shift at the very location where the heist is to go down. Nick is resistant and untrusting of Jack/Brian, who provides blueprints and the plan for the heist, but needs Nick's expertise to pull it off. After repeated warnings, Nick agrees to go ahead with the plan using Jack/Brian. The rest of the film details the planning and execution of the heist, with a surprising twist at the end. The film's action was continuous. Overall, a good suspense film.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Boring and formulaic
Review: Despite nice performances by DeNiro, Norton and Brando, this movie never gets going. The plot is a mild variation from the genre. The only thing that keeps this from being a standard B movie is the cast and a few (very few) nice lines of dialog.

One of the big disappointments in the movie is that we never get to know the characters. We know absolutely nothing about Norton's character, slightly more about DeNiro's and a little more about Brando's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Score
Review: If you like the movie HEAT then you will definately like this action packed and suspense thriller..The actors do a wonderful job and once you start watching this you wont want to stop the tape until you are done...THUMBS UP to this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Score, didn't Score
Review: I saw a preview of The Score, when it came out in Theatres. I was impressed by two things. 1)Robert De Niro. 2)Edward Norton. That's it. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, nor a film, entirly by the preview. However with the actors billed, I figured it was worth a look. And it is.

The best way I can describe this movie without giving away any hints is this: Picture a joke, with a punch line that takes only a sentence. A one liner. Now take that "one liner" and try to film it, using about 90 minutes. That is what the score does.

Why do we root for the bad guy? Do we root for the Bad guy because he's Robert De Niro, or Mel Gibson? In this movie, I rooted for the bad guy, like were suppost to. But why? Why do we care if they are caught?

This movie doesn't make any sense because it doesn't surround any elements we really care about. De Niro and Norton are great, and Angela Basset looks like she's only here because she's on contract.

I would definetly watch it for yourself. It's entertaining, and suspenceful. The only thing: There is no reasoning behind it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic Movie
Review: This is just one of those perfect movies, if you like no-tongue-in-check drama/action. Just Great! Both Deniro and Norton can produce sub-standard fare, but this is not one of those. All the actors in this are in PEAK form and the movie deserves to be right up there with the "In The Line of Fire" class of movies. Picture clear, sound perfect. More than I could ask. If I could find one of these a month, I would be a happy guy.


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