Reviews

Really interesting spy thriller. Realistic plot. Wonder why some people give this movie less than a 5 out of 10. Did IMDb have controls in place for preventing malicious ratings when this movie was released? Anyway, don't see how this movie comes across as less than average. The cinematography alone was enough for a 5 out of 10. Perhaps it was the reminder about JFK's assassination that generated the low scores. Given the assassination already is in the past, it is fact. Enjoying the movie for its literary quality does not change that fact. For me, framing of the assassination within a nicely articulated movie was a plus, not a minus. Prior to the very last frames of this movie, I was leaning towards a rating of 8 out of 10. But then the ending was so sublime.

With a title like 'Swindle', and a score (criminal activity) as object of a movie, you wonder if it could be any good.

But if you are looking for a good illustration of how a movie can be chock full of characters yet revolve mainly around two characters, this is the movie. There is the undercover cop whose dialogue is just great, and a tough hoodlum who does not get much screen time, but whose presence looms large in the movie. The two are a lesson in contrasts.

The ending is one of those grey area endings, different people will have different takes on it. The important thing? A surprisingly good movie with a somewhat surprising ending.

If this movie was supposed to be a parody, it was extremely badly done. I watched this movie unto the end only out of curiosity as to how things would pan out. Other than that, I probably would have switched to something else somewhere along the way.

There is a sub plot in this movie involving the older detective, his sick wife, and her caregiver. I have my theories, but I could not arrive at a pinpoint characterization of essence of the interaction between the caregiver and the husband. Wondered whether there was a metaphysical undertone to it all.

If you are the type who might be interested, the interaction between the detective and his sick wife raises interesting questions about sickness and attitudes towards sickness.

By the way, they did find the girl. But then you probably already guessed that would happen. The path to that outcome also is interesting.

Overall, a decent movie.

When a cop makes a mistake and everyone roots for him not to take a permanent fall, well that is what life should be is it not?

This movie is about second chances both for the cop, his wife, and his son. The movie almost got contrived for me, but the script pulled it off the deep bend.

Personally, I hate it when movies contrive responses from characters that in my opinion are out of sync with reality of a situation.

But then, that's me.

Take Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan out of this movie, and there is nothing left. The movie is watchable only because of the two stars. If you can't find anything better, it is watchable.

It is not often that you watch a movie, and feel none of the dialogue is forced or cheesy.

All of the dialogue in this movie is well done.

There is dialogue between the main character and a psychologist that you probably should watch out for in this movie. Is the psychiatrist running a script, falling in love with her patient, or just trying to have as many sessions as possible, make more money? Could be any of the three, or could be some other fourth or fifth reason.

Having a movie with such uncertainty as to what exactly was going on kind of imbues it with some appealing mystery. Much like questions about life, not all questions have to have one unique answer.

It typically is difficult for action movies to attempt to convey social, political, or spiritual statements. It might have been rather late, but Rambo for instance created positive vibes for people who fought in Vietnam.

This movie is chock full of positive messages on social, spiritual, and terrorism issues. Add to that an ending, which though I never anticipated totally made sense, and this is a really, really good movie.

When a movie can make a guy who is ambivalent about his chances of success at pulling off a company coup look like a hero - the it's going to be better to die standing sort of mentality - the movie is doing something right.

When the real premise of a movie is hidden until the very last scene, someone's done a good job because at that very last scene, you find yourself rethinking everything you thought you already knew from prior scenes.

Ultimately, this movie is about second chances, and how second chances are earned by relatively flawed good character, or blown by bad character. A nice literary fiction - character development story.

The cinematography isn't great, but the story makes up for it.

In this movie, just about everyone is attempting to control some other person. There is overt control, there is manipulative control, there is suggestive control, there is, 'I am going to take over this relationship' kind of control.

If you enjoy this sort of movie, this is a quite decent implementation, especially given the person who seemed least controlling pulls off an action of which his character and personality suggested he was incapable.

Not my sort of dish, but it held my attention to the end, which means it wasn't half bad.

I cannot really label myself a sci fi aficionado in the sense that I do not go looking for sci fi movies. I generally prefer my sci fi as context, as opposed to focus of a movie.

This movie surprised me because while it was sci fi, the sci fi simultaneously was context for discussion of the state of society, and how trying to fix society without obtaining buy in of society eminently can backfire.

That the ending was somewhat dystopian seemingly was fitting because it was the choice of the people, as opposed to an imposition of say, a dictatorship.

This movie is a great dramatic epic because the dialogue is great. The 'Book Thief' is a great dramatic epic because of it's excellent character development, essence of a literary novel or movie. 'Life Itself' does not engage in character development, yet you feel endeared to the characters because they somehow are defined by their dialogue. Never seen a movie soften an adverse event as much as this movie does, with outcome you focus on the good that could come out of the adverse event. Don't know why they threw in that 'goddamn' at end of the movie, but I overlooked it and gave it a 10 anyways.

This movie is about an historical event whose outcome already is documented in history. Regardless of presenting of the movie watcher with presentiment of outcome of the movie, the movie kept my attention from beginning to end. The acting was great, the scenes wide and captivating as you would expect of a great movie. It felt good to watch a movie characterized by great cinematography and a score that made me feel like I was listening to movie theater surround sound. But then perhaps, it was my surround sound. Anyway, great movie on all counts.