Confidence/X2/Fod is a Piece of Poo

Sorry this entry took so damn long to post, but FOD hasn’t allowed me to post for two weeks. So I’m condensing two entries into one and hopefully it will go through. Otherwise I’ll smack my head against a wall and send YET another email to them…..this is really frustrating.

CONFIDENCE: 5 of 5

While Confidence is nothing new to the genre of con games, it is so stylish and filled with such excellent actors, such unique and brilliant characters, and a has such flare and style to its storytelling and its cinematography that any idiot who hates this movie for not being super smart or artsy should be insulted for being so stupid, as it is obvious this movie is trying to win on charm alone….and it does.

Dustin Hoffman, who isn’t in enough of the movie, is brilliant and makes his character unique and does carry himself so well as a bad guy and an intimidating one because of his ability to act like a crazed maniac. He chews gum incessantly, swallows pills, headbutts people, and talks far too fast and can’t keep his attention straight at all. He, combined with Burns’ straight man is a great contrast and a wonderful duo that plays well off each other.

Burns has been highly criticized by reviewers for having no acting skill in this movie, and I think the fact of the matter is that Burns played the part the way it was written. He’s not some melodramatic guy, he’s not some man who loses his head, he’s just a cold, cool, smooth talker who never for a moment loses his head or portrays an emotion, which is why it’s hard to tell when he’s lying, telling the truth, or working an angle. It’s impossible to tell because there is no difference in his emotions, no difference in any of the things he says, and that’s why he should be applauded rather than burned for not being more unstable.

Rachel Wiesz is hot, and that’s all she really needs to be through the whole movie, as her entire role is to be the girl who gets the guy to believe her because she’s so damn sexy. And the thing that Rachel fails at, which is unfortunate because I think Weisz is sooo hot, is that she is pretty transparent and we can see right through her and she gives away a lot of what is going to happen.

Luis Guzman and Morris Chestnut are absolutely wonderful as the two crooked cops on Burn’s payroll. Guzman once more plays his naturally latino humorous character and sometimes is so funny just at being the cop who stares blankly whenever he doesn’t talk….which doesn’t look out of place. Morris Chestnut, too, is a good idiot, and he also has some of the best lines as he complains about his kid’s braces.

Paul Giamatti is his usual sarcastic self and does a good job of shooting his one-liners and playing his role…though there is nothing exceptional here. Nor is there anything exceptional or faulty in Brian Van Holt’s role as Miles, the other con on Burn’s team, and one of the better personality actors around, as he has done great roles lately and has more slated. (See him in Basic and soon to be coming SWAT.)

Anthony Garcia is absolutely excellent as well, though he too has a small part, though one larger than Dustin Hoffman’s in the end. He plays his character well, though once more, the classic nature of the film means that we know right from the get go that everything will turn out right, as Ed Burns is the kind of con who is always thinking ahead and tells us so.

The film’s cinematography focuses on heavy singular colors all the time and has a very noir feel to it, which makes it all the better and helps us allow the fact that it does not really try to turn us inside out with twists which too many movies think they need anymore. *Cough* Anger Management *Cough.* The shifting from the central storytelling as Burns is about to be shot by a mysterious African-American guy who we don’t identify until near the end of the movie constantly shifts out to the story that Burns is telling the guy.

What makes this movie even better is the fact that if you watch the way the scene shift, as if they’re tracking past on the screen…it’s a symbolic shell game….fitting perfectly with the con, which is a brilliant mastery.

In the end, this is not the movie if you want a mind-blowing, mysterious thriller. Identity is that movie. This is the kind of movie you sit back to watch good actors act well and have a good time watching the style and the witty lines.

X2: 5 of 5

Ok, so this movie rocks. What is there really to say?

Firstly, there are going to be six X-men movies and after the VAST improvements the second one has made since the first, I can’t wait to see how far they excel by the last few movies. Once again the cast has been assembled out of brilliant Shakespearean actors along with some new faces.

While all the acting is good, even the ones that one would think wouldn’t be, like ol’ Rebecca….but rather, they all do a fantastic job which I think has a lot to do with the director Bryan Singer, who is a genious.

The opening scene will blow you away and that will hold you until the several brilliant scenes that litter the movie as Bryan turns to a more darker depiction of the X-men, with a great deal of killing and violence.

I’m not going to spoil any of the movie, so you just have to go see it and you can take my word that one of the top three movies that will come out this year…next to Lord of the Rings and above the Matrix. I’m sorry, but the Matrix is cool, but the acting power of the X-men cast is awesome. Anyway…go see it and enjoy the brilliance of everything.