Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
MartinHafer
"Criminal" is the American version of an Argentinian film, "Nine Queens". "Nine Queens" is an amazingly good picture...so good that I recommend you see it. Should you bother seeing this Americanization? Read on to see.The story begins with a clumsy young grifter, Rodrigo (Diego Luna), scamming in a casino. Another grifter, the more experienced and suave Richard (John C. Reilly), sees what's happening...and sees when one of the employees recognize that they are being swindled. So, Richard pretends to be a cop and 'arrests' Rodrigo...and after leaving the casino, Richard offers to hire the young man, as he needs a new partner. But first, to make sure he can handle it, they spend the day cheating people...to make sure Rodrigo is good at his craft. So where does all this go next and what does a forged bank note have to do with them? See the film.Richard is an extremely crude, unlikable and crass guy. While I usually hate that in movies, considering he's supposed to be a complete sociopath, it actually makes sense to have him be so awful. Reilly does a fine job here...though my wife said "I prefer him when he plays idiots like in TALLADEGA NIGHTS"). As for the rest, they're fine and the movie is enjoyable and intelligently made. But the bottom line is that it is NOT original and so the movie loses a point or so. Still, it's is good and well worth your time...if you are, for some reason, dead set against seeing the better original.
dunmore_ego
Honor among thieves? *I don't think so!* Well-dressed and well-spoken grifter, Richard (John C. Reilly), rescues inexperienced, young Spanish con artist, Rodrigo (Diego Luna) from an arrest, taking the supposedly-inexperienced youngster under his wing, at first for small cons, and then for a giant con that suddenly falls into his lap.Ah yes, but who is conning who? Well directed by Gregory Jacobs – or misdirected, as the case may be – from an Argentine movie, NINE QUEENS (Fabián Bielinsky's NUEVE REINAS, 2000), produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh (no strangers to confusing audiences – to wit: OCEAN'S 11/12/13), CRIMINAL is rife with scams within cons within plays.All very satisfactory, I might add, due in large part to the utmost conviction in all the exceptional performances. Twists in con movies tend to come at you with a groan, whereas the twisty storyline in CRIMINAL comes at you via a night-stick to the back of the knees.Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Reilly's sister, of whom he asks a morally-wretched favor, and Peter Mullan is a rich investor whom Reilly tries to sell a counterfeit bank note. All while trying to con Diego's life savings from his little illegal immigrant pockets.With the deceptive dance twirling to the last frame, you discover something about yourself when you watch these types of movies – whether you are sharp enough to see the reveal coming, or whether you LIKE being a blind bitch.
Argemaluco
Nine queens is one of the greatest Argentinean movies.Criminal,that movie's remake,is not a bad movie and it's way better that almost all recent remakes but it's not at the same level of the original.The superb and unexpected ending on the original movie,on this movie lost surprise for me because I knew it.But Criminal is a fun movie.The people who saw Nine queens will be fun with this movie but without surprise but the people who did not see Nine queens will enjoy it much more.I knew all the surprises from the beginning but I was fun watching this movie and it's way better that recent remakes.Rating: 7
Ebert
Nueve Reinas, the original story, is so much better, that is difficult to see that copy. Why Hollywood insist in don't translate the dialogs of the foreign films that American audiences could like, and release them? What is the reason that they are so f..... chauvinists? The rest of those lines is only to fill that obligatory rule of ten lines. Why ten? Why not twelve or fifteen? Maybee is the same reason for the actual blockbusters have 120 minutes or more. If you could't tell a story in 90 minutes, forget'it. I'm tired of those idiot "epilogues" that don't do nothing to the film narrative. Blá, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
