The Good Thief

Not as good as the original, and needlessly confusing.

I hear the original is pretty good, but this really wasn't. Tries to be a big, classy, sexy heist movie but it just doesn't have it.

Boring from the Beginning to the End....

Nick Nolte is impeccable, and it's nice to see some French actors, but this movie is really meh.

Unsuccessful remake.

slightly over-stylized but still very engaging

Would be pretty average if not for Nick Nolte, who makes most films worth watching.

Neil Jordan's remake of Bob le Flambeur is obssessed with doubles. You could go mad counting the dopplegangers & dualities in the film, from the numerous mirror shots, to twins, prime numbers, fakes/authentics, good/evil, win/lose, cop/thief... There are two heists, two junkies, dual nationalities, two ways to skin a cat (or score some cash). The only way to succeed is to roll the dice and play along gracefully.

"Even with the drugs and the gambling and a host of oddballs who are thankfully never romanticized to the point of nausea, the film is ultimately much too sanitary for its own good." - Chuck Rudolph

It was a great casting decision to put Nick Nolte in the lead role of this film. Nolte gives a great performance and the script keeps things interesting. This is a good thinking man's film.

Interesting remake of "Bob le flambeur". Where Melville's original is effortlessly cool and distanced, Jordan's remake in turn hurtles uneasily from scene to scene, character to character like a wounded beast drawing its last breath. In other words: A movie very much made for Nick Nolte.

This is how you can waste a really interesting idea. The main female character destroyed it completely. She's totally not needed for the course of events, and what is more, she's completely annoying. She's not even sexy (which could justify her presence there a little), a total disaster. She's like another Mathilda from "Leon the Professional", but 1000 times worse. The main male character was ok, I guess, although he was sometimes a little too naive (not to say stupid). I'm really disappointed.

Like Terry Gilliam before him, I just can't seem to get on Neil Jordan's wavelength, though at least with Jordan there's a spark in there that actually makes his films watchable. But at the same time it just seems like for every good choice there's some other weird, off-putting element that keeps me at a distance. It's always compelling and interesting and well-paced, but then at the same time there's always a Phillipa to make me wonder what the fuck his problem is.

Thats true that The Good Thief is not a remake of Bob Le Flambeur. As admirer of Neil Jordans work, i think he is done well and movie is very enjoyable to watch.

The dialogue is, at best, a pale imitation of Melville's effortless elegance, so it's all up to Nick Nolte's regal performance and the photography of silhouettes and wafting cigarette smoke against a deep blue night.