The Art of the Steal

The Art of the Steal has quite a few funny moments, but it comes off as staged and gimmicky, and I felt more cheated by the ending than impressed. 

Online reviews were mixed for The Art of the Steal, but I like Jay Baruchel, I don't mind Kurt Russell, and it looked like it might be funny. The style was too "gimmicky." I didn't like all the "x-ray" shots of things inside of things, or all the times the names of people's roles popped up.  It felt really light. It didn't go in-depth into anything. It was like an unsatisfying episode of White Collar.

I felt totally cheated by the ending. I don't like that they showed us all that stuff as if it really happened, and then none of it actually happened. That's not a good twist. I didn't like sitting through the story about the Mona Lisa, although I guess you needed it. But that doesn't even make sense. I think word would get out among the buyers that they each had a Mona Lisa or that particular Seurat, and then they'd be going after the team. It doesn't seem very impressive for them to pull it off when it's already been done before, either.

I didn't like that we didn't know anything about Lola. I never felt like she was really committed to Crunch - which is a terrible name. Francie (also a bizarre name) was such a wuss, I can't see him stealing anything. I did love his outfit, though; the chain, the gloves, the jacket, the hair, it was all great. I liked Guy's outfits, too, and the line about him dressing like a slutty elf was kind of funny, but he was wearing a crazy outfit in that scene, and it seemed like they just put him in that to make the line work.

Guy was so much of a caricature, but I couldn't tell if they were doing it on purpose or not. I had the same problem with Bick. He was so over the top. Everybody else was playing it believable, and his performance just didn't mesh at all. The entire movie was too overproduced, too staged; it didn't feel organic. I don't think Samuel would've been able to get away with being so snide to him, either. I didn't understand why Samuel was in jail at the end if he was an informant. It was confusing. But I guess it's not like on White Collar where he gets to live in an apartment somewhere; they just pull him out of jail when they need to use him.

There were a lot of funny parts, like the scene in the bathroom with Sunny. Paddy was a good character. I liked the scene in the snow when they got to Detroit, just for how it looked. The director said it was supposed to be a winter movie with more snow, but the weather didn't cooperate. I think it would've been more visually interesting if there had been more snow. I did like the image of Crunch getting into the white box, though.

I was pretty sure Nicky was going to screw them over the entire time, but I was still disappointed when he tried to do it. I didn't like all the callback jokes, like "you wouldn't know a vagina if it was four feet tall," and then there actually is a four-foot tall vagina. I didn't like that they referenced Baruchel's previous role in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, either.