Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

bryanbph-82636 Maybe not as polished and as big budget as an Oceans film, but had a certain Guy Ritchie feel about it. I had to double-check and see if he was the Director. He wasn't, so my hat off to Jonathan Sobol for creating this great movie. Had the right mixture of fun, suspense, and action to make it a very enjoyable film. You knew most of the movie something unexpected was going to happen at the end, but I wasn't able to figure it out, so the ending was very enjoyable. Kurt Russell and Matt Dillon were great in the movie. Jason Jones who plays the Interpol agent is enjoyable to watch along side Terence Stamp. I really enjoyed this movie from start to finish.

CANpatbuck3664 This was another random pick on Netflix for me. I like heist flicks and the movie had a pretty good cast. It's not Ocean's Eleven calibre with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon but you rarely go wrong with guys like Kurt Russell, Jay Baruchel and Terrence Stamp. I had heard a little bit about this movie, some people were claiming it was a bit of a cult hit so I threw it on while I was having my morning cup of coffee. I think as long as you're not expecting something from Guy Ritchie or Steven Soderbergh, you could have a good time with this.*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell) is our narrator and our protagonist and he begins the movie by talking about how when you go to jail, you only really remember your first day and your last day. He's not in your normal minimum security prison though, he's been jailed in Warsaw, Poland with a pretty angry prison population. He then takes us back to show us how he ended up in jail. His team, comprised of his brother Nicky Calhoun (Matt Dillon), Paddy (Kenneth Welsh) and Guy (Chris Diamantopoulos) are on the verge of ripping off a powerful dealer by supplying him with a forgery of a famous piece of art and keeping the original for themselves. It almost goes off perfectly but a last minute touch-up by Guy (the forger on the team) leads to the dealer being tipped off that it's a fake while he's driving away. When the team tries to make their getaway, they get in an accident with the police. Nicky rats out Crunch under interrogation to avoid jail time. Crunch then has to spend 5 1/2 years in the jail to spare Nicky and the rest of the team.Crunch gets out of jail and tries to live a relatively honest life. He's got a girlfriend named Lola (Kathryn Winnick) and a friend/apprentice named Francie (Jay Baruchel). He works as a motorcycle stuntman who deliberately crashes his bike in a circus for an extra couple hundred bucks. Things are looking bleak when due to a bizarre set of circumstances, Nicky ends up back in his life. He claims to want to make amends and has a plan to reform the gang and tackle 1 more big score.The Art of the Steal follows in the tradition of the heist movies that came before it. The plot is pretty tight, it isn't without small problems but I didn't find any glaring plot holes. Swiping art from the Canadian border patrol is decently fresh. They include a couple of twists in the plot that are unexpected. I'll admit, other than some new items that they're swiping (the one piece is interesting for sure), there's not too much here that's completely original.So while The Art of the Steal does borrow a little from more famous sources, it does do it well. The movie has a surprising amount of style for a movie that wasn't given a huge budget and it was very reminiscent of Snatch or any other Guy Ritchie movie. The other thing is that you have some very quick and sharp dialogue. The movie was pretty funny in certain scenes and Kurt Russell has a couple of nice monologues to bookend the film.You don't have an A-list cast here but they did a good job casting the film. Kurt Russell is always fun to watch even when he's not on the top of his game and he did some good work in this. It was nice to see Matt Dillon again, he delivers a pretty workmanlike performance. Jay Baruchel fit into the ensemble nicely, he kind of offsets the more reserved Russell and Dillon against Diamantopoulos and Welsh who aren't bad but they're laying it on a little thick. In a small aside, it was also cool to see Kathryn Winnick here. She's been really great on Vikings, they don't give her much to do but it's good to see her getting more roles.I wouldn't nominate this movie for any awards but for a small-release genre film, this definitely was a decent effort. It doesn't have high aspirations but after having seen The Art of the Steal, I'm wondering why didn't it get a bigger release? It's a satisfying caper movie that checks off all the necessary boxes for a good time. You could do worse when you're clicking through Netflix looking for something to watch.

bkoganbing The Art Of The Steal casts Kurt Russell and Matt Dillon as a pair of half brothers who are into crime in a big way. Russell has just come out of a Polish prison and would certainly like a big score because he isn't getting any younger. He's even willing to include Dillon in on it though Dillon is the reason he did those seven years as guest of the Polish Republic.Russell gathers his usual crew, a colorful bunch like Jay Baruchel, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Kenneth Welsh. He also has a former player Terence Stamp now working for Interpol.They work one clever art theft caper but there's quite a bit more involved as one of the bunch gets very greedy. Let's just say that this was anticipated and this person was played like a piccolo solo.The ensemble cast gives some great performances. Russell especially as he's now doing character roles and doing them well. The film probably could have used some better direction, still the location photography in Canada and in Europe was well done for this Canadian caper film.

Bob An This is a very entertaining movie! Every minute of it is interesting and I really enjoyed it a lot! It is fun and has a great story with a twist towards the end!I like art and movies about art theft are very interesting to me. This one had a Gaughuin and Seurat. But it is not a movie about the paintings but about the people behind the theft. I liked how they portrayed the 'minds' behind the operation. And they did shine alight on what are people's motives for the theft : money, art itself, fame.I found it was quite interesting that they told the story of Mona Lisa theft at the beginning of XX century. I read a book about it and remembered it while they were talking about the poor Italian who stole Mona Lisa.I also found it very nice that they did what they did with the original painting in the movie! I can imagine what a joy is to hold a masterpiece!This movie is not a masterpiece in its genre, but it is next best thing! I recommend!