The first half of the movie is good, and then...

I think it goes off the rails the moment we see Parker dressed as a clergyman, winning a stuffed animal for a cute little girl. And then looking GUILTY (!!!!) when he hears a man died because of the fire set to cover the heist. It was never going to be a good movie--best it could ever have been was semi-enjoyable trash.

But yes, it gets worse once JLO shows up.

They could not just get rid of that character, though. Integral to the story they're adapting, but they screwed her up, like they did with every other character.

Couldn't agree more. They could have completely left the lesson character out and this movie would have been fine. Likely better. I still enjoyed this movie to an extent but it definitely didn't need the leslie addition.

I think that you are quite right... 

This was a VERY odd film... What I finally came up with, and I don't know if this is 'right' or not, but it seemed to me that the individual parts or scenes for the most part were just fine. The characters and acting overall (with maybe the exception of a tepid J-Lo) were pretty good. What seemed REALLY odd to me, especially with a great director like Taylor Hackford ('THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE' - frigg'n BITCH'n film!) that when all the parts are put together or maybe HOW they are put together, it just seems somehow not to flow right as an overall film. I don't know if it was the pacing or editing or what, but it was really hard to specify, but bloody SOMETHING just didn't quite seem right and like you said, towards the end, just kind of left you with the feeling that it wasn't really all that good...

Cheers! 




I now have over 6700 films; many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK! 

I couldn't have said it better and I actually came to the message boards to say the exact same! This film could easily be edited down to the 90 minute mark and it could have retained the promise it had in the first half. Parker is double crossed and he's out for revenge. Pure, simple and easy! WHo cares if J Lo is broke? Who cares that she gets some money after its over?? Seriously STatham couldn't find out there was a huge 50+ million dollar jewelry auction coming up?? GTFOH!! She is completely pointless to the story and offers nothing more than eye candy.(And that's only in the bra and panty scene!)

This could be a fantastic wham, bam action flick that hits the 90 or so minute mark, but noooo, 2 hours just to insert her in?? And I swear, it felt like they were inserted after the fact! The narrative flow is completely hijacked and it got boring real fast. Oh well, it did some good stuff but its a shame they wasted what could have been a fantastic movie to put her in.

Who's strangling the cat?

I have to agree....
though I did enjoy the checking for a wire scene.