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The Score

The Score

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: norton and deniro bang heads and they do it well
Review: this is a good heist movie and i'm really glad I saw this amd bought it. Norton wants DeNiro to help him with a heist that involves a gold septer thing that's locked away in a place he's working at as a retarded man named Brian. all along the way we have a great cast including a crazy hacker kid who still lives with his mom and you have Marlon Brando as Max, who is really great and in a better performance then his last stink pot the island of dr moreau. angela bassett is also good as DeNiro's girl. The twist at the end is great. Norton later does another heist movie in the remake of the italian job with seth green. lots of fun and there are some veteran jazz musicians in cameos as well

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A STELLAR-CAST WASTED. NEVERTHELESS, A GOOD ENTERTAINER.
Review: The movie is entertaining, but due to reasons, other than the performances of its stellar cast: Angela Bassett has just a few and dull moments on the screen. Marlon Brando is helpless with the trite role assigned to him. Though De Niro plays the lead role in this flick, even his performance is limited by the action-oriented role, he plays. The starry-cast fails; but the suspense, the gizmos, and of course, Edward Norton save the day.

Edward Norton is full of life, zest, and enthusiasm. The dual role played be him, as a retarded housekeeper and as an adept thief, is pretty convincing and smartly enacted. The gadgets seem like con-jobs, but are however, pretty well-done and detailed. The computer-hacking part and the part about stealing the codes regarding the security system are overdone, and seem factitious and fatuous. The hacker-geek with a baneful mother is a lot more baneful than his squalling mother herself. Amidst of the many imperfections in the movie, it builds up steadily and interestingly to a well-written and well-directed climax. More than anything else, it is the climax of the movie, which makes it complete as an entertaining thriller.

With the kind of the star-cast it has, the movie is deceptive: It doesn't have substance, it doesn't have style, and it lacks maturity. If watched with keeping the brain aside to rest, it is thrilling and entertaining, and can be savored at best. Along with its healthful entertaining value, the score itself, of THE SCORE, by Howard Shore is good music for the ears.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Done Before But Still Engaging
Review: Heist movies are really tough to do today. Pretty much everything in the world has now been officially robbed according to American cinema. Also, there are no new ways of robbing things, as every trick in the book has been done to death in the movies already. So, therefore, it is risky to take on such a weathered and repeated genre. However, with some good actors, a taut storyline, and a series of tense grab scenes, you can have yourself a pretty decent little thriller. And that is what The Score offers. No tricks, you know what is going to get stolen, you are pretty sure you know how it will be stolen, but you watch with excitement anyway. The wonderful performances of Deniro and Norton, along with what I thought was a clever little twist at the end make this an enjoyable movie.

Deniro plays the familiar role of semi-retired criminal, so en vogue in movies nowadays. Sure, in the past, or last week, he was breaking into high-class mansions dressed as a helium balloon man, then making away with two hundred thousand dollars worth of jewels, but that was then. Now, Deniro enjoys the honest life of nightclub owner in Montreal, where he lives a good, smoky life of beat jazz and moderate alcohol intake. He has a serious girlfriend, he's got plenty of illicit money, and all is right with the world. That is until Marlon Brando, his criminal boss and antique spotter comes to him with a proposition. One job, five million dollars. All you have to do is break into the Montreal Customs House, the most guarded building in the city. The plan is the brainchild of a brash new burglar, played by Edward Norton, who has engineered a very good plan to make the score. They just need someone with the experience and expertise of Deniro's character. So, he goes in, and the rest is our movie (what, you thought he would turn it down?).

The strengths of the movie, to me, were obviously Norton and Deniro. I really liked Nortons character, it was a very multi-layered performance as you could never truly figure his persona out. This leads to a delightful amount of friction between him and Deniro, as the veteran that Deniro portrays is loathe to take some of the chances that Norton takes. Deniro is his usual solid self as a man who is tired but can never say no to adventure. The storyline concerning his girlfriend, however, was just a waste of time, as it never really added anything concrete to the storyline. Marlon Brando is little more than distracting in his role, I did not really buy his angle or what he was trying to do. It's just a wash with him. The story is tight, and the buildup to the finale is pretty intense. The big score at the end is very thrilling, as is the tricky little twist slipped in at the end. All in all, The Score is a faithful tribute to all the heist and caper movies that came before. It has little new, but what is has has apparently aged very well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Waste of a Brilliant Cast
Review: I saw this movie because of the dazzling cast only to find out they were wasted on a luke-warm script and a less than dazzling heist. Everyone seemed to be walking through there parts, with the possible exception of Edward Norton. Though it has immense potential, the result is annoyingly flat. If you want to see Edward Norton preform in a movie you'll actually enjoy, try Fight Club, American History X, or Primal Fear.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Three Generations of Crooks
Review: Yes, the plot is familiar, BUT this one has three-generations of stellar actors: De Niro, Brando, and Norton who all deliver blue-ribbon performances.

World-weary safecracker De Niro agrees to one last job for old pal Brando's sake who is in a bind with the highly dangerous local crime syndicate. The "inside" man is young, untested Ed Norton, a janitor at the Montreal Customs House where a priceless scepter is being stored. De Niro is tempted by the potential six million dollar payoff so he can retire to just being the owner of a jazz club. The setup is complicated, the execution nerve wracking and the conclusion has a marvelous twist.

Brando as the opulently wealthy infallible set up man is wonderfully clever in his role. To me, the chemistry between he and Norton was stronger and better balanced than between Brando and De Niro. Always a danger when performing with Brando, De Niro seemed to fade a little when Brando was in the scene. Norton is flat out brilliant as an icy young criminal. He convinces his coworkers at the Customs House, he is a harmless, slightly palsied and retarded youth. In this guise, he is lovably cheerful and guileless, a beautiful contrast to the cold, cynical crook that lies beneath. De Niro gets a workout having to carry out the incredibly complex robbery where the tension level goes through the roof. Angela Bassett does what she can in a somewhat stereotyped role as De Niro's girlfriend.

This would be a 5-star caper movie except it has 2nd act troubles. It sags a little in the middle and wanders off course. When it finally gets to the nuts and bolts of the actual robbery, the film is gripping and tension is unremitting ably assisted by a fine musical score. Don't miss it; the movie stands on its own. Brando delivers not just a cameo or a walk-through for a paycheck, but a fine thinking performance. (How does he always make it seem so effortless?) De Niro is fine and gritty, if a little subdued and Norton is superb.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great actors, needed stronger plot
Review: All of the actors in this film are great. And by great, I mean they easily disappear into their characters and become believeable. The chemistry between DeNiro and Bassett works as does Marlon Brando, who it's almost impossible to believe is an actor. Brando slips into character so easily that it's a little disturbing to see him in one performance to the next, he's both a presence larger than himself and at the same time invisible to being detected. As always Ed Norton is very good too as someone who is ultimately challenging DeNiro's character to break his rules.
The problem with this film is the plot. There's a lot of characters here but the plot isn't as meaty as they are. I often complain about the letdown of the third act but somewhere there was distress in the secodn act, I believe and the third act balances the promise of the first but is lost to being a conenctive part to what the second should've built about. The heist is a little simplsitic and the double cross apparent in a formulaic way. I think that movies come up against the wall of Doing Harm to The Lead Characters as a plot derailer. By having to avoid the "hero" either losing or dying, films have to redeem him or her at the end in often flat ways. The desire for sequels must also permeate this thought as does the marketing perception of a movie. However it often costs really good casts assemblage making incredible movies.
Watch thsi for the talent but not the story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: DeNiro Scores Again
Review: I love the movie.......i loved the twist and turns of the picture.....im a big Deniro fan...as well as Ed Norton......DeNiro always delivers...I was very surprised by the way the picture ended.........I also enjoyed seeing Deniro with a girlfriend.....not some cupcake but a real woman....Angela Bassett made a wonderful companion for him....liked the interplay between them....cant wait for the DVD to come out....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Steal This Movie
Review: Surprisingly "old-fashioned" heist noir that pulls you in without the usual Hollywood bells and whistles (why, there's nary even a car chase!). Reminiscent of Michael Mann's 1981 "one last job" character study "Thief" (or his own semi-remake, 1995's "Heat"), "The Score" benefits from the presence of Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Ed Norton, the most irresistable stunt casting since Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick were teamed up in "Family Business". For the first time in years, Brando actually gives a performance, as opposed to just "showing up" for another pay-the-rent cameo. It's almost as if Brando enjoys teasing the audience (and his fellow actors) by giving us carefully measured parcels of his undeniable genius only when the mood strikes him to do so. DeNiro is great, naturally, but his character is virtually indistinguishable from the master thief in "Heat", so he offers few surprises here. Ed Norton (taking his cue from Kevin Spacey in "The Usual Suspects") proves once again that he is the Generation Next "Method" man to watch. Film buffs should keep an eye out for an homage to DeNiro's "King Of Comedy" character in a scene involving a crazed computer hacker (or maybe I've just seen too many movies!). Worth a look.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: DeNiro is amazing in this movie, and Norton shines, too
Review: Now, Robert DeNiro has made a lot of great movies, nay, god-like movies. And while it may seem sacreligious, I believe that The Score ranks among the best of DeNiro. Norton is amazing, if slightly offensive playing a disabled janitor inside the museum that is the target of the heist. Great acting all around, and the computer geek scene is one of my favorite dark comedic scenes in a long time

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hi my Name is Willy
Review: i like to play games and eat cheese i normally don't watch none moving picture shows but my big sister larry made me watch this one i laughed the whole way through you ought see this sho


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