Matchstick Men

[Alethia]

i really didn't like the ending.  what a fucking cheat.  but still worth seeing, the rest is good.

[Ghostboy]

Yeah, too bad Cage is venturing back into Bruckheimer territory after this, because it was a wonderful performance. Alison Lohman is just too cute. And I thought the epilogue was nice. But the ending...well, let me move into inviso-text:


It's one of those 'everything you knew was a lie' cliches, and it just annoyed me. It made the film impossible to take seriously anymore, because something like that would just be too complext to pull off at that level. I guessed that Frank would screw Roy, but I didn't guess the extent of the con, just because I thought the movie was playing things closer to reality. It makes everything that came before it seem completely predestined, if you will. Took all the spontanaeity out of it.

Roger Ebert must have seen this movie at precisely the right time on precisely the right day to love it as much as he did.

[Pwaybloe]

I agree with the Friendly Ghost.  

SPOILERS
The con was just too complex to pull off in real life.  And all this was time and effort went into getting 1 million dollars (+ or -), AND splitting this up with, if I remember this right, 5 other people (not including his "daughter")?  Seems pointless.  
END SPOILERS

On a similar note, "Swimming Pool" had an ending that changed your whole perspective of the movie as a whole, and it worked because it was on more of a, er, psychological level.  "Matchstick Men" wasn't.  

The ending just didn't work, but the rest of the movie was really good.

[Pubrick]

ending ending ending
ending ending ending
ending ending ending.

[Gold Trumpet]

So many problems. To begin, (spoilers) Cage shows his lack of talents as an actor yet again and how Depp can join him in the same category. Both guys can be seen as actors driven to play parts of people......but with a weirdness to them; a quirck of some sort. The only "normal" people these guys came near touching was The Family Man (Cage) and Nick of Time (Depp). The thing is, their general weirdness, seems never really to have a point. Cage, in this movie, has ticks and a condition that allows him free reign on facial movements. Its not needed. The only set up for this condition is to the oddity of him having a daughter and dealing with it (typical French cliche) and starting to change from her being in his life (typical American cliche). Thing is, Cage just being a career criminal and having to be a dad all of a sudden could lead him to all these problems and changes. The ticks and conditions aren't needed. They actually destroy potential story because the movie spent 20 minutes just introducing his mental condition. Weirdness for the sake of weirdness. To get back to Depp, I did complement him in parts of his last two movies. They were cheap movies, though and by the time writing for his character got to general par, he was engaging because he was playing more likable characters and everyone was still written to crap. Unlike most others here, I'm not going to give him any dick suck for his last two performances.

Then, the revealing ending. it was cheap and destructable, but not what announced a bad ending. That came when the situation amounted to the girl killing the guy in the final confrotation. That was cheap thriller ending in every sense. The revelation itself was predictable. Any fan of Mamet saw that coming a mile away. Mamet was more for the con and clever in his movies so you felt less robbed by the gimmickery of a "turn the table" kind of ending. And of course, general rule in my opinion when a movie rests on a "surprise" ending, it usually suggests a shit film.

~rougerum

[edison]

I think the whole tick thing was because of the con jobs, because at the end he doesnt have them anymore, it was more of just a mental thing, i dont think he was really ill with it, he just though he was. but yeah, its mainly one of those ohhhh, heres an actor doing the i have a illness thing, lets nominate him for some awards, but really i think doing the con jobs messed him up more than anything.

[cinemanarchist]

I was struck by the amount of corporate bonding that went on in this film. It seemed as though most of their memorable times together were either eating Domino's or Ben and Jerry's.

*SPOILER ALERT*
After she was gone he was still buying the ice cream...nothing like a product to remind us of things gone by.

*END SPOILER*

I realize we sometimes do this in our day to day lives, perhaps a food will remind us of someone...but the way it was handled in this film made it feel more like a commercial than anything else to me. Otherwise, terrific cinematography...the supermarket reminded me alot of PDL and his house reminded me of Boogie Nights.

[Cecil]

I realize we sometimes do this in our day to day lives, perhaps a food will remind us of someone...but the way it was handled in this film made it feel more like a commercial than anything else to me.

i disagree. cast away is what felt like a commercial to me

[MrBurgerKing]

I was struck by the amount of corporate bonding that went on in this film. It seemed as though most of their memorable times together were either eating Domino's or Ben and Jerry's.

*SPOILER ALERT*
After she was gone he was still buying the ice cream...nothing like a product to remind us of things gone by.

*END SPOILER*

I realize we sometimes do this in our day to day lives, perhaps a food will remind us of someone...but the way it was handled in this film made it feel more like a commercial than anything else to me. Otherwise, terrific cinematography...the supermarket reminded me alot of PDL and his house reminded me of Boogie Nights.

This is completely unrelated and I'm sorry, but --

cinemanarchist's Avatar Please Marry Me!



I did like this flick. Nice cinematography.. Ridley Scott always knows how to make the best use of the widescreen.

[cinemanarchist]

This is also completely unrelated...but a Gap, Burger King, Hitler cross promotion/marriage would truly bring the world to its knees...and provide comfortable slave labor khakis and delicious hamburgers...nay...Whoppers!

[tpfkabi]

so Allison Lohman is 23? ........i really believed that she was that
young........

***spoiler****

is she actually a 14 year old girl in the script though? i just thought it weird that a 15 year old girl would move in with a guy

****end*****

melora looks really old

oh, and Sam Rockwell was totally different that his character in Confessions.......i was surprised, but i also haven't seen any of his other films, so maybe that's his mold and Confessions was a departure

[Jensen Briggs]

I suggest the book, it's marvelous.
The movie, however, was a let-down.  I was hoping for more focus on the scams than Roy's ticks.

[The Silver Bullet]

...it's Ridley's Scott's best movie...

...as for his best film..he already achieved that and most likely won't top it ..it's called Blach Hawk Down...

Ahem:

[edison]

...it's Ridley's Scott's best movie...

...as for his best film..he already achieved that and most likely won't top it ..it's called Blach Hawk Down...

Ahem:

This movie is so choice, if you have the means I highly recommend picking it up for a viewing. Good call Silver Bullet.

[The Silver Bullet]

Screw viewing, try owning.