Rating: 
Summary: "Butch & Sundance" Ride Again! -- Great Entertainment!
Review: Another teaming of Newman & Redford, this time as two Depression Era small time crooks determined to land the "big one", con-ing a big time gangster visiting from NYC. The Scott Joplin music featured throughout is beautiful, "The Entertainer" becoming a world hit! The film runs a bit long, but the "sting" at the end is worth your patience. This is great escapism, a classic!
Rating: 
Summary: The Cardboard Cake
Review: I've seen The Sting three times now, and each time I have marveled at the luminous cinematography, stylish direction, snappy dialogue and the knowing performances. George Roy Hill's 1973 Oscar winner is not a great film, but it sure looks like one. The principle threesome of director Hill and stars Newman and Redford had collaborated on Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid four years earlier, and The Sting charming as it is pales in comparison. All great films have to be more then the sum of their parts, and Butch Cassidy had a certain mysticism, a lyricism. It wasn't just a clever film about the plight of two outlaws, but like the greatest of films hinted at a greater subtext without spelling it out. By contrast The Sting is all about plot. I've always loved films about Con artists because 1-their colorful lifestyle is always fun to watch and 2-more often then not they always seem to poccess dark secrets. The Sting fulfills the first part but not the second. It doesn't have the violent intensity of Miller's Crossing, the sado-masochistic physcology of House Of Games, or the brooding guilt of The Grifters. No, this is much more lighthearted fare, lovingly made and enjoyably performed. While it never gets the viewer emotionally involved it is (especially in the re-mastered version) a feast for the senses. The film is anchored by three superior performances, Newman(expected), Redford(surprising) and Robert Shaw(marvellous). As the villanous Doyle Lonnegan he commands attention. Vindictive and cruel, he speaks in a bizzare accent, and follows everything he says with "you follow", except when he says it sounds more like "ye falla". Despite the tree star rating, I would reccomend you own this one for its ingenious plot that rewards repeated veiwings. And the ragtime music by Scott Joplin is always a pleasure. But inspite of some stunning sequences (the poker game on the train comes to mind) the film never rises above its complex mechanics to involve the audience on anything but a superficial level. For a film about deception, The Sting lays its cards on the table for all to see.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie / Bad DVD
Review: Universal should shood themselves for not respecting this movie on DVD; they released a THX re-mastered CHS version complete with a cute CD soundtrack and around the time they released this DVD. The movie itself is excellent and quite funny in my opinion; Paul Newman was hilarous. "He cheats better than I do!" was the crime lord's words as Paul Newman's character cheats him. I have no sympathy for Universal regarding the DVD of this. No widescreen and no Dolby Digital 5.1. My suggestion: Wait and maybe they'll release a better version.
Rating:
Summary: Very Clever and a lot of Fun!
Review: This is the second time George Roy Hill made movie magic (not to mention box office cash) by teaming Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Lots of aspects about this movie have become screen cliches and the score is one of the most memorable of all time. But the ingenious plot twists are the ones that leave the impact and leave the viewer with a big smile on his/her face and wanting to return for more. The screenplay itself is buy-the-book creating amusing situation, likable characters and a big wallop of an ending. Sure, it follows the formula, but we don't even care, we get such a thrill out of watching Redford and Newman in action that we forget about everything else. It also wouldn't of worked so well if it wasn't for the high quality supporting cast (kudos go to Robert Shaw), and the high production values. This is a movie that asks for repeated viewings, and it's just a flat-out good time. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 9!
Rating:
Summary: Paul Newman's best performance since Exodus. Excellent.
Review: Paul Newman and Robert Redford team up in one of the best comedies of all time. Terrific performances by Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw. However, this great feature had too much cursing. There are so many other words that can be used instead of foul language.But the movie is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: No Widescreen? -- Universal Video Blows It Again
Review: This film, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1973, is available on VHS in the widescreen format. So why in the world would it take one of its golden movies from its great library and slap it onto a DVD in a full aspect ratio (TV Land) format? The video and audio quality are terrific. Otherwise, the "no-widescreen" decision doesn't make sense at all. Is this a "trend" adopted by some home video divisions at the studios in California to accommodate the still larger group of non-purists who prefer seeing movies in the dumb pan and scan or what I laughably call the "HBO format?" Go over to AMC and Turner Classic Movies on cable and the trend over there, for people who are movie purists, is in a completely opposite direction. More of their films are being shown on cable in the widescreen format. "The Sting" is the second major crtically acclaimed Universal studio release on DVD that is being offered without the widescreen format. The other, and you'll choke on this when you hear this, is "Babe," the delightful film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1995. Even more puzzling is Universal Studio's decision to release the sequel, "Babe: A Pig in the City," which was little seen in theaters, in full widescreen format on DVD. Why widescreen on one and not the other? I could understand it if the studio released information indicating to consumers that the awful 1:33:1 aspect ratio (the 35mm norm for nearly all films released in the United States before 1953) was the original theatrical issue, but I don't believe this was the case for 1995's masterful "Babe." Another atrocious miscue by another company, is being commited by Fox Video for its DVD version of Alan Parker's gloriously intoxicating film, "The Commitments," another film that deserves the widescreen treatment and not crummy pan and scan. Please, fellow Amazonians out there, get on the bandwagon and clamor for the studios, at the very least, to offer both formats on DVD, and not one at the exclusion of the other! This is the way most of the major DVD releases are done right now anyway (widescreen on side A and pan and scan on side B). Perhaps Universal's handling of "Babe" was to cater to the "kiddie crowd." But that's insulting if the film's popularity hadn't crossed over to adults, it wouldn't have made as much money as it did and just as important, it would not have been nominated for Best Picture in 1995. But the lack of a widescreen DVD for "The Sting" is truly, truly a puzzle, a riddle, a baffling decision by Universal. I can think of no acceptable explanation other than they didn't want to spend the money to treat one of its Oscar-winning gems on DVD the way it treated it for the currently available widescreen version of "The Sting" on VHS. Does anyone at Universal/MCA at Universal City, California have an answer that makes sense? This is truly a travesty for DVD fans!
Rating:
Summary: Greatest story-line ever written
Review: The acting is wonderful, the suprises are unpredictable, and overall, this is one of the most original movies I've ever seen in my life. There can be no duplicates. And evey time i watch this movie, some how I notice about five things I've never seen before, like it changes every time. And no, I'm not an old movie collector or total classic lover, actually, I'm only sixteen. But this is easily one of my favorite movies in history. My favorite scene is with the card playing on the train.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: The winner of Best Picture in the Academy Awards, this momentus film deserved that highest of honers in the film industry. After watching thsi movie approximately once every year or two, almost every year of my 13 years of existence, I can safely say that, after Gone With the WInd, The Wizard of Oz, and all three Wallace and Gromit movies, this is my all time favorite movie. I love movies and have been a huge fan of the academy awards for as long as I can remember. This is a wonderful film.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Superb performances by three great actors (Robert Shaw, Robert Redford and Paul Newman). A great plot. An excellent musical score. This film grips you from start to finish as one of the all time greats. The plot centres around a young con-artist who wants revenge following the murder of his mentor, friend and partner. With help from a big player who was also a former associate of the deceased he sets up an elaborate sting for the man responsible. The plot twists are great with a cameo sub-plot between Redford and Durning that entwines beautifully with the main story. As previously mentioned the musical score is wonderful, a re-working of Scott Joplin's Entertainer that really captures the mood of the film. This film was made to do one thing: entertain, and it does exactly that.
Rating:
Summary: An all around great film
Review: If you like to feel like you just beat the system, you'll love The Sting. The combination of swanky style, ragtime, and oneupsmanship makes this movie one the all time great comedy/dramas.
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