All these 4 movies are worth a watch. I saw Lasse Hallströms “The Hoax” yesterday and was not disapointed . I added 3 other recomendations too!
A super matinée flick. Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, a mediocre author who tries to turn his fortune with an outrageous literary coup – that he is engaged to write the autobiography of reclusive magnate Howard Hughes. Gere captures the chutzpah and nervous opportunism of Irving; he is helped by director Lasse Hallström with unfussy sequences of intoxication, dream and surrealism as the project takes on a terrible life of its own.
Hallström is well-attuned to the natural drama in the story, using period footage and bleaching his shots beige with filters. Yet he really wrings the drama from the situation and has made a nail-biting and often funny film. Gere has classy support from the versatile Alfred Molina, a grandstanding Hope Davis as his agent and, latterly, the ever-watchable Stanley Tucci (Julie Delpy simply fleshes out a cameo). Worth a watch but not asgood as matchstick men or Criminal as I mention below.
Catch Me If You Can was overlooked by the Oscars, though it did get nominations for the Original Score and Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken).
The Acting is mostly pretty good in Spielberg’s movies and this is no exception. Dicaprio was excellent as Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenager who commits Bank Fraud. This is by far his best performance I have ever seen from him, there wasnt a moment when he was bad. Tom Hanks is good in his role, but this is easily one of his least memorable performances. Christopher Walken is Great as Frank’s father. You could tell immediately Frank was influenced by him.
Overall, Catch Me lacks some of the “stuff” for it to be a Great movie, but its very entertaining and worth your while to see.
The film is a classic con-artist flick, and those are awesome to watch. They make you think, and they’re fun.
John C. Reilly is a terrific character actor, a good choice as a leading man!
Maggie Gyllanhaal was great, and well casted for this part. I think she is a very overlooked actress and in a way follows Johnny Depp’s paths, as a somewhat newcomer to Hollywood, picking films that are more interesting than cliché or stereotypical Hollywood, so to speak.
The film itself though, was well-written, a good John C. Reilly as I said before in the lead, and the rest was well-casted also. With that, I will say it’s one of the better interesting films I’ve seen in a long time, and will keep it in mind for recommending it to people that I see. See it!
“Matchstick Men” is a film with extremely difficult characterizations and plot twists. Under a different director, and with a different set of stars, this may have been a complete failure. Ridley Scott directs with a level of professionalism that he has built up over the years, but adds some very nice stylistic “heist movie” touches. When it comes down to it, “Matchstick Men” is very much a 60s-70s con/heist film, and has it’s fair share of homage.
Nicolas Cage is wonderful as an obsessive-compulsive man, (amoung other disorders) and does not over-do the symptoms. This is something I appreciate, since I suffer from a milder form of OCD. It’s important to remember that we’re not all Howard Hughes. Sam Rockwell is excellent, and a bit slimy, and Alison Lohman shows her range by playing a dramatically younger character than herself.
This is a wonderful and entertaining film, yet doesn’t fake it’s way through the real emotions. Definitely worth the watch.
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