StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

hazel-752-685975 This sweet children's film may seem predictable especially with Bo's plot device cough, but just wait. There are unexpected twists around the corner, it will take you by surprise.The acting varied a lot throughout the film, I personally thought that the hero: The Thief Lord, was really wooden until you discovered a little bit more of his mysterious life then all of a sudden he got a lot better. Then he grew a few inches, and despite the brilliant acting at that point his hair really needed cutting. Bo however was really sweet and got the best lines and I grew to like his brother more throughout the film as it showed just how sensible and brotherly he could be. Even the "baddie" detective turned out to be a nice guy despite his bad bumbling mistakes in the first half of the film. The only real baddies were The Thief Lord's parents, you never see his mum but his dad is nasty piece of work.As for the plot, it didn't stop but wasn't always a surprise. I was just waiting for them to discover that the money from the deal was counterfeit. I was quite surprised when it turned out none of the kids were really proper thieves though but it was a nice twist. Despite the stupid mask do not expect Zorro-ness from this film you are robbed of virtually any evil and nearly everyone receives a happy ending. I was a bit disappointed when we didn't get to see Skippio tell off his dad for being such a meanie (are you allowed to call people names on IMDb?) to him but his telling off of the Aunt and Uncle make up for it. This film is funny, cute and definitely for young children: a feel good movie all round, enjoy!

rdoetjes First of all I'd like to praise Aaron Johnson he's by far the best actor of the bunch. His role is very difficult to act out specially for a kid his age (15) back then.I didn't like the movie itself very much because it comes across as jerky, sloppy and very unbalanced for instance: Bo and Prop have had a terrible time on the streets before they were rescued by Scipio but for some reason the Director/Screenwriter Richard Claus left that out. Scipio, is supposed to be a very careful character he wouldn't take in Bo and Prop for trying to steel some cough medicine. And then there's Scipio's mask. Scipio, hides his face for every adult according to the book but in the movie the mask goes on and off on the strangest moments, this really spoils the mystical character of Scipio also Scipio's normal life as a rich boy being mentally tormented by his father doesn't come across because the screenplay just skims over this very important fact. Now the "street kids" seem to be only mad at him because he's a rich boy. But they are actually angry about the fact that Scipio used them to make himself feel good by being looked up at and respected because he isn't being respected at home. And all this is so meagerly portrayed.Generally there's no fluency in between the scenes and plots and subplots this makes it look very messy the first time when you see it. When you actually watch the movie a second and third time and get over this disastrous screenplay and brilliant acting of the youngsters it does become an intriguing movie.I.M.H.O Richard Claus shouldn't have been the screen writer and I don't like his way of cinematic photography either (too little close ups and hardly any movement by the characters when they act). Another Screen writer and a better director would've made this now "B" movie into a blockbuster. All in all the story has all the ingredients and the actors are phenomenal.

Juni78ukr The Thief Lord was released in my country a couple of months ago and for some reason this movie almost immediately caught my attention. A German family adventure/fantasy movie with English language and with English actors – all of that seemed quite unusual and therefore interesting to me. At the same time I never heard of Cornelia Funke's novel of the same name so I didn't know exactly what to expect from the movie. I watched Thief Lord today and actually I liked it. It was really fascinating to see something fresh and different from typical and often annoying Hollywood family stuff. For young ones Thief Lord is an enjoyable family adventure with talented young cast against the background of one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world, Venice. For grown-ups besides that it's a story of bitter loneliness and sometimes misunderstanding which unite most of the characters. Two brothers, fifteen years old Prosper and much younger Bo, after death of their parents are separated. The younger goes to the old childless relatives and Prosper has been sent to an orphanage. But brothers can't live without each other and for six years old Bo Prosper is the only person who cares about him and loves him so much. Desperate, they run away. They have nowhere to go in the whole world and they are heading to Venice, the city that their mother loved so much. But the city is not welcome to runaways with no money and only unexpected help of a mysterious boy, who called himself Thief Lord and saves them from more troubles. Bo and Prosper join him and his team of orphans who find a refuge in a deserted movie theater. Soon our heroes learn that ancient city is full of surprises and what's is more that some strange magical things can happen there. They become involved into rather unexpected events and lives of different characters collide in Venice. We meet a lonely wife and husband, who also heading to Venice, trying to find a runaway child, who was merely a way to suppress their own loneliness, a lonely detective, who was hired to find Bo and some other characters. However, finally for many of our heroes resolution salvation of their personal problems will come in a rather unexpected way for each other. But the loneliest and most suffering from that is mysterious Thief Lord himself who is trying to keep his secrets inside of him. This key character is playing by Rollo Weeks, who looks very good in his rather complicated part. Both Aaron Johnson (Prosper) and Jasper Harris also left very positive impression from their acting, self-reliance and naturalness. Despite rather short running time of the movie the development of most main characters is not bad. We know enough about them to feel sympathy or antipathy to them and we are not indifferent to them, which is very important for such a story. The acting among adult cast was also not bad with most memorable and likable performance from Jim Carter as Victor. Thief Lord in the beginning the movie is fast paced and probably a little too short but mostly it's exciting well-filmed film with interesting and original story. The soundtrack one it's own looked very good and it's a very good addition to visual part even if sometimes the music is abstracted from what we saw on screen. And let me to say that visuals for such low-budgeted production were also not too bad. If you are looking for a good non-American family adventure film on English language as an alternative for Hollywood production featuring talented cast, probably you would be unable to find better choice than Thief Lord. Also it's worth to notice that the movie mostly successfully avoids typical and clichéd for American family films crude humor and language.I know possibly I'm too generous and surely Thief Lord is not a flawless masterpiece but I rated it 9 out of 10. Unfortunately such enjoyable and beautifully shot family movies so rarely appear in our movie theaters or video stores. And the last one thing that I almost forgot to mention. The title song "Orphan skies" is pretty cool and I liked it very much.

blonderoses12 This was a pretty good movie. I read the book as well, and it was much better. I personally expected Esther to be younger, but that's okay. Scipio and Prosper was each about to be 13, but in the movie Scipio is 15 and Prosper is 15. I liked the beginning scene when Prop and Bo are in the boat with the bike. One thing I liked was Hornet and Prosper at the end. They look so cute together. I wish there were more scenes with them together, and if you rent the DVD, there is a deleted scene with them talking about Prosper's mom. The cast was so cool. My two favorites are Rollo Weeks, who plays Scipio, and Alice Connor, who plays Hornet. All in all, this movie was pretty great.