Rating: 
Summary: (3 ½) Suspend Belief and Enjoy A Fun Movie With a Message
Review: This is a movie that is fast paced fun but without any subtlety at all; it is just nonstop action where the plot serves to further the character development that is the essence of the story. In addition, the plot increasingly strains credulity as the story evolves, so you just have to accept the premise and go with the flow as the twists and turns eventually lead to a somewhat contrived feel good ending. Nevertheless, the performances are first rate, and Ridley Scott keeps the story moving rapidly along so that the almost two hours seems to fly by.As the movie begins, we meet Roy Walker, marvelously played by Nicholas Cage, and Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) as these two partners engage in one of the many flim flams which enable them to successfully con a gullible couple out of a few hundred dollars. Frank believes that he has located a mark in Chuck Frechette (Bruce McGill) who they can scam for several thousand dollars, but Roy is unwilling to proceed and would rather consistently hit the smaller marks as a safer strategy. Integral to the storyline is that Roy suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a lot of the early movie is Nicholas Cage wonderfully portraying Roy's neuroses and their effect on his life and chosen career. Roy's search for a new analyst unites him with Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman), who forces Roy to delve into his past in an attempt to try to treat his problems rather than just mask the symptoms through medication. Thus, Roy meets a daughter Angela (Alison Lohman) who he never knew existed (from a failed marriage) and the plot complications begin. The relationship convinces him that he should make one big score and then retire; meanwhile she becomes fascinated with his life, wants to learn how to run a con, and seems to be a natural. As you can undoubtedly imagine, once the background setting is established the plot quickly becomes complicated. I will stop there, since to reveal more of the storyline would detract from the enjoyment of watching the action evolve, which is undoubtedly one of the best elements of watching a film of this genre. The plot twists are quite clever, and the casting is first rate. While Nicholas Cage is clearly the star of this film, Rockwell's and Lohman's characters are well developed and the credibility of their performances are integral to the film's success. However, while I chose to round up my rating to four stars, there are a few serious flaws that kept this film from living up to its potential. First, the director not only wants to tell a story, but deliver a message, and the somewhat contrived ending allows him to do that in a feel good but very superficial manner. More importantly, the cumulative probability of the coincidences that were necessary for the scam to work was so low that no true scam artist would have expected them to occur. Thus, while I was totally absorbed while watching the film, my reaction afterward with regard to several of the crucial elements was disbelief. I felt - wait a minute, how could that have really been arranged? So I recommend this film if you want to watch a fun movie with an ingenious plot and several surprising twists. You'll have an enjoyable time as long as you don't expect it to adhere to a realistic scenario. Tucker Andersen
Rating:
Summary: Great. Great music/sound/acting. Excellent directing/editing
Review: This movie is great, no argument possible. Ridley Scott knows exactly what he is doing and it's no fluke. He's consistant. This movie shows what it means to make a movie into a work of art. Every element of this movie is great: plot, characters, motivations, script, dialogue, music, sound, editing....and on and on. The sound track is very detailed. I haven't noticed that before in many movies. Additional sounds like the chime of the seat belt warning, the sound of shoes on carpet, security chain on the door ratteling, the detail is amazing and enjoyable and surprising. The music is excellent. Ranging from a 13 year old Wayne Newton singing "Danka Shern" to an alternate version of "More Than This" (made famous by 10,000 Maniacs) the music is again, detailed, enjoyable, and surprising. Also, the music intrudes on the movie just enough. Enough to notice and augment the action, but not enough to become a distraction. The editing and direction are excellent and done in a way that is "art" rather than simply "getting the job done." During the time when Roy was waiting for Angela at the park, there was a rapid fire succession of images. My first thought was it was like a computer program, following a logical and methodical process at lightning speed to deliver the intended effect. Not bad, but, hmmm, not exactly. Other thoughts I had about this scene were collage, montage, music video, mosaic, or painting. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but it was incredible and I appreciate this kind of effort in today's movie making climate. I give this movie a 9 because it was excellent, but it did not have the inspiring effect on me that I require to award a 10. However, I realized that some, possibly much, of the artistry and content of the movie went over my head. If I had understood it all, I would probably have to award a 10.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining, but not truly exceptional
Review: Nicolas Cage is pretty funny and a neurotic conman, but it's not an Oscar-worthy performance. At the end of the film, you may think that the story was too unbelievable to be a great film. Still, without giving the story away, this is a an entertaining film and worth watching. It's about as satisfying as Ocean's Eleven, which apparently had the same screen writers.
Rating: 
Summary: A Brief Rundown of Matchstick Men
Review: Matchstick Men has so many twists and turns it's a thrill just trying to keep up. This is one of the greatest movies in the world, and while the "extra features" on this DVD leave more to be desired, the movie itself should be enough to convince you to purchase. In this movie, Nicholas Cage and Sam Rochwell play Matchstick Men (con artists) struggling to keep their fruitful partnership alive. Sam Rockwell wants to engage in a very profitable con, but the conservative Cage isn't sure. But when Cage's daughter shows up at his doorstep, everything changes for Nicholas. This is only the beginning and this movie is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the end.
Rating:
Summary: Fishy ending dims Cage and Lohman's fantastic work
Review: "Matchstick Men" is film noir with a heart of gold, and it is worse off for its generosity. Ostensibly the tale of an obsessive/compulsive con man (Nicolas Cage) and a newly formed, world-shattering (for him) relationship with his 13-year-old daughter (Alison Lohman), Ridley Scott's film works toward something bigger, which, when revealed, is a fairly sharp right turn. Imagine, then, an epilogue that turns just as sharply back to the left - duping the dupe, if you will - and you've approximated how "Matchstick Men" unfurls in its final 20 minutes. A cheat of a cheat is even dirtier than the real thing. Back in a role that best fits his showboat antics, Cage is Roy, a barely functioning LA huckster who scams retirees with a showboat his equal, Frank (Sam Rockwell), who pines to play a large-sum con that Roy, millions in bank, doesn't need. Just how Roy has survived years of panic attacks brought on by loose carpet fibers and hamburger crumbs is left unsaid, but for the time being he pops illegal anti-depressants, until, during a fit, he loses them down the sink drain. See a shrink, Frank helpfully suggests, going so far to "give him a name" of an amiable, soft-bellied practitioner (Bruce Altman) who gently nudges Roy to connect with Angela, a daughter he's never known, played by Lohman with a intelligence beyond, shall we say, her 13 years. Angela is like a serum for Roy's ailments - she so completely obliterates his home upon her first visit he can't help but submit to a cure. It tricks him into accepting two things: Frank's score and a vortex of trust toxic to a game grifter. A literate, a-bing-bang-boom script from Ted and Nicolas Griffin, based on Eric Garcia's recent novel, is slightly short on originality -every con there is has been played on the big screen, after all - but long on speed and tight dialogue; it doesn't feature a wide cast, but draws clearly the principals. Cage has generally been at his best when uninhibited, and Roy provides him the chance to play the gamecock dandy for all its worth: He struts and stutters and smokes and sweats so effectively, the audience is engaged in a kind of transference. Scott presents early panic scenes with such clarity and urgency that Angela's entrance in Roy's life works on us as much as it does Roy. And Lohman, at 23, is terrific at the cute, smart kid, as good here as she was in "White Oleander;" that the father/daughter dynamic works at all is thanks to her performance, partially by design, when you think about it. Rockwell is the goofy cowboy sidekick laying his own odds. And I like Altman as the shrink, in a more important role in the film than it seems. The twist of "Matchstick Men" is there to see, but not in plain view; Scott plays to our growing distrust of the grift (and Angela) with a series of red flags that nevertheless don't diminish the stomach-panging moment the switch is flipped. Upon that scene's arrival, the movie has reached a suitable, logistic close, but an epilogue, following the title card "One Year Later," presents a pretty fishy (Who are we kidding? It's unbelievable) resolution to Roy's "journey of discovery." Quentin Tarantino has his own issues with his "Kill Bill," but I suspect he would have known how to put a final, crushing spin on the story without sacrificing the essential nature of a well-acted character.
Rating:
Summary: Conning the conners
Review: In "Matchstick Men," Nicholas Cage plays a con man so obsessive/compulsive in nature that he makes Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets" look like Oscar Madison in comparison. Fastidious to the core, Roy Waller freaks out at the first sign of dust, dirt or bacteria invading his personal environment, so much so that he keeps his place not merely immaculate but almost hermetically sealed off from the outside world. Somehow, even with this crippling neurosis plaguing his every waking moment, Roy has managed to eke out a pretty decent living as a shyster, ripping off gullible common folk with his partner, Frank, played wonderfully by the gifted Sam Rockwell. One day, into Roy's life strolls Angela, the 14-year old daughter he never knew he had. Suddenly, Roy is confronted with the need to reexamine both his life and his priorities and to make some crucial decisions about just how this strange young person should fit into the overall scheme of his existence. Written by Nicholas and Ted Griffin and directed by Ridley Scott, "Matchstick Men" provides a stylish, clever and witty psychological riff on the old scam artist scenario, featuring fine performances by Cage, Rockwell and Alison Lohman, as well as an intriguing visual style by Scott, cameraman John Mathieson and editor Dody Dorn which often approximates Roy's mental and emotional state. Cage once again indulges in those nervous tics that seem to have become his actor's stock-in-trade of late, but he does manage to tamp them down long enough to allow a real character of flesh-and-blood to shine through the potentially distracting surface. Alison Lohman, so brilliant in "White Oleander" last year, makes Angela into a multi-faceted teenager who runs the gamut from immensely likable to slightly irritating - just about right for a character her age. Rockwell practically steals the show as Frank, the con man to the core who may be a bit better at his job than even Roy himself realizes. Hans Zimmer has provided a humdinger of a musical score, one reminiscent of some of Nina Rota's work for Fellini back in the early '60's. "Matchstick Men" is not a perfect film; it sags in spots, doesn't dig deeply enough into its themes, and sometimes feels too clever and calculated for its own good. Still, the movie has an originality and an assurance that come when a group of old pros get together to have a good time and end up sharing that fun with their audience.
Rating:
Summary: Flattens out at the end
Review: A cross between "The Sting" and "Catch me if you can". Cage reprises his (typecasted) role as the down-and-out confidence man shooting for the last big score and finds himself taken by the people he thinks he is scamming. Double and triple crosses make the plotline interesting but falls flat at the end. There is no honor among thieves but even so, because the comeuppance that you expect never happens I was left feeling a little hollow at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome back, Nick
Review: A rather surprising turn for Ridley Scott there - probably the "smallest" film he's ever done, which harks back to Thelma And Louise than to anything else he's done in recent years (Gladiator, G.I Jane, Black Hawk Down, and back to Alien and Blade Runner). We have a very personal, up-close light drama here. Con artist movies have been swarming the theatres lately, but Matchstick Men is far more intelligent and more surprising, not to mention well-acted, written and directed, than Supercast films Heist and The Score. Nicolas Cage, after several years of B-action movies (Gone In 60 Seconds, 8 mm, The Rock, Face/Off...) makes a welcome return to what he does best - disturbed, neurotic, sensitive individuals (a comeback that got off to a good start on the schizophrenic Adaptation) - and delivers an Oscar nomination-worthy performance as con artist Roy Waller. Roy discovers a long-lost daughter, played brilliantly by Alison Lohman - also Oscar material. The relationship between the two is well crafted, and the story wonderfully written. Sam Rockwell also makes a fine contribution as Roy's partner. Elements of the plot may owe much to many other films - The Sting, perhaps Jacky Brown, and there's a bit of Leon (AKA The Professional) in Roy's relationship with his daughter, trying to balance a life of crime with a newfound family, and Lohman's performance is no less charming than that of Natalie Portman on that memorable classic. Worthy of praise is Ridley's directing, which proves he can make a small human theatre piece as well as grandiose historical epics and sci-fi odysseys. The editing is wonderful, well visualizing Roy's condition and giving the movie an apt atmosphere. Overall, Matchstick Men is one of the freshest films of the year, and a very enjoyable watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad....
Review: Actually a decent movie about a con man (Nick Cage) who gets a second change at being a father after a rather odd twist of fate. Better then most movies of this genre. However I would not go out of my way to see it again.
Rating:
Summary: HITS YOU GENTLEMEN [YOU KNOW WHERE...]
Review: ARREST ALISON LOHMAN ... right now! [A whiff of Jessica Lange here ~ including her beauty and flawless talent!] SO this is quite a brilliant show - borrows slightly from "Paper Moon", "The Sting" {natch}, "Catch me If you Can" and "Jackie Brown" [without the ... gore?] and even to some extent the equally brilliant "Grifters". A great caper headed by the slightly mannered but always watchable Mr. Cage in a def. nom. worth performance ... shadowed by SAM ROCKWELL ['innocent', slithery, cute .......] So, where's the prozac? Let's not say more - but this one's finely crafted, slickly moving, funny, sad and has that ending that WE love! There's nothing offesive here - just a good kick to the ...] psss. Oscar ... are you listening??? [Best director and costume too ~ unobtrusive, but spot on!] AND the script!
Neophytes take note!!
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