The Art of the Steal (2014)

Please don't spend money on this.

Excellent, a Must See

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I like heist movies, once they were making great ones, but not anymore. I have heard about this, though haven't seen it till now. Seems it's a decent film, but came at the wrong time of the history. You know, the same film 15-20 years ago would have made a better impact among people, as well as commercially. Nowadays, the youngsters want only superhero action-sci-fi films. That should not be the reason for a film's failure. Instead, they should have improved it in lots of areas. But still I liked a few things from it, like the information about mixing the real art with the fake ones, but still it remains as the real.The film is about two half-brothers. They are the art thieves and they have done many jobs together, but in their final one, one of them betrays. So the rest of the narration sets in a few years later when they join hands for another big art heist sidelining their differences. They form a big team and this time they are watchful over each other. Now comes the final act where the actual event takes place and with a twist the story comes to an end.An enjoyable film, little funny and had some good moments, But overall film was predictable, including the twist. Could be the director's best film so far. Kurt Russell was just okay, but expected a lot. The rest of the cast in this multi-starrer, does not look good, though contributed. Maybe the film characters were weaker than the story. They should have focused more on them to progress it, so it would have achieved the success they were looking for than what a few people praising it. I think it's okay for a watch with the low expectation.6/10

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.

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.

Much closer to Gambit (1966) than the horrible remake Gambit (2012)The Art of the Steal (2013) In order to sell numerous forgeries of a Book, they appear to steal the first edition, which turns out to be a fabricated ploy, and the true purpose was to steal, and sell numerous forgeries of a painting by Georges Seurat.Gambit (1966) In order to sell numerous forgeries of a sculpture, they appear to steal the original Bust, which isn't really stolen, but the theft was reported worldwide.Gambit (2012) An art curator decides to seek revenge on his abusive boss by conning him into buying a fake Monet, but his plan requires the help of an eccentric and unpredictable Texas rodeo queen.