Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Prismark10 David Mamet loves confidence tricksters. He understands the art of the con and he likes writing about the subject. When Mamet writes or directs a film about con men you know its a multi layered experience.Heist though is a misfire. It stars Gene Hackman and Rebecca Pidgeon as husband and wife as well as Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo and Sam Rockwell.Gene Hackman and his gang are forced by DeVito to steal a shipment of Swiss gold and has his nephew (Sam Rockwell) to tag along. He has an eye for Pidgeon and no one wants to share the proceeds of the heist.Its hard boiled with hard cursing and some Mamet regulars such as Ricky Jay. However Hackman is too old to be Pidgeon's husband and Pidgeon as an actress is weak here. The plot is too complicated as its based on a double cross on a double cross as well as a shootout where the bad guys have to be poor shots for any overall plan to work.The acting from Hackman, DeVito, Lindo and Rockwell make the film watchable but its a missed opportunity from Mamet.

Simon Harris Many of the reviews on this film mention the fact that it is overcomplicated and may have one twist too many. Good. I like to have to think about what's on the screen. If I want to switch off and simply stare, I'll watch a Transformers movie. For those viewers who like to keep on their toes and have to assess and maybe even re-assess what they are seeing this is a great movie. Snappy, quick fire dialogue, the kind of criminal, low life patois that Mamet does so well is peppered throughout the film, with staple Ricky Jay "cute as a Chinese baby" or "And there he goes!" getting some of the best lines. Top notch performances all round from all the cast members make this a classy, complex movie. Hackman's criminal mastermind is more than an equal to DeNiro's Neil McCauley in Heat but minus the sub-machine guns, and with a real world weariness about him, as he tries to ensure his last "thing" pays off. Delroy Lindo, Danny De Vito and Sam Rockwell don't let the side down either with strong support performances,and Rebecca Pidgeon as Hackman's much younger wife is diamond hard and dangerous as the only female in a world of double dealing Alpha males. Fans of the genre will be happy to watch it more than once as the web woven and the crossfire dialogue means there is always some new slant on events. Complex plotting, quotable dialogue, strong leads and supporting actors and David Mamet at the helm mean there are many worse ways to spend an evening.

Townley Thomerson One of the best one-liners was "We're going to storm the dust cabinet just like smoke fills a balloon on the sun." This kind of non sequitur dialogue is very difficult to write, but when it's delivered with a static expression it really pushes the envelope to the next level and beyond. Another great quip is delivered by Mamet himself during his cameo in the "Get KFC for the crew" scene (deleted scene). He says, "Man, life as a humble chicken soda salesman is literally rotoscoped security camera footage of a banjo backwater baptismal in black and white." Brilliant.

Terrell Howell (KnightsofNi11) David Mamet is undeniably great when it comes to writing... for the stage. His films adapted from his stage plays are all much better than his original screenplays, but Heist is a good effort. The film is about long time criminal Joe Moore, played by Gene Hackman. Joe begrudgingly takes on one last heist to steal a shipment of gold. However, Joe's employer sends along his nephew to ensure that the the haul from the heist is split evenly. Things play out like a fairly typical crime thriller, but the film is plenty entertaining and bares enough merit to warrant approval.Heist has plenty of good things going for it. To begin, it has a great cast full of a diverse amount of people with wide ranges of skill. Gene Hackman is great in his leading role and he fits the role excellently. He is an actor that can carry a film very well, and in Heist he does just that. Opposite Hackman is Danny DeVito as the sinister Mickey Bergman, Hackman's sleazy employer. He becomes your typical archetypal villain by the end of the film, but DeVito plays him great nonetheless. The rest of the supporting cast includes talents such as Rebecca Pidgeon, Delroy Lindo, and Ricky Jay as the other three members of Hackman's crew. They're each very different and played to a fun extent by their respective actors. Sam Rockwell, a current favorite of mine, is DeVito's nephew. He's a loser and an idiot, but makes for a fun character that plays into the story very well. That being said, the storyline in Heist isn't actually anything spectacular. It's fun and intriguing, but when you break it down it isn't terribly unique. But hey, at least the film has a story right? Heist has a very stylistic feel to it that I would have liked to see go further than it did. It does a lot of cool stuff that does keep it interesting throughout. For one, the score is great. Theodore Shapiro composed the original score for the film and it adds a lot to the style. It heightens some of the best moments of the film and also gives it a somewhat 80's thriller feel which I found entertaining at least. Probably one of the most interesting and well written aspects of the film would be the way this group of criminals pull off all of their heists. It is all through acting and improv skills. It constitutes dressing up as different professions and setting up false scenarios in order to set up situations. The heist itself could have gone a lot further but it is still fun. It lacks the depth that Mamet's other thrillers, but doesn't disappoint overall. I compared it to Mamet's directorial debut, House of Games (1987) and the depth of that film and the levels of the con/heist that developed in that movie. Heist had the potential to reach this level but unfortunately didn't quite make it.It shocks me to say that the main area where Heist falls short would be its story and script. The story is what it is and I found plenty of enjoyment for what it was worth, but there were some very noticeable issues with the screenplay. For the most part it is good. However, it is not consistent. There are moments in the film that definitely feel like Mamet. There are some very witty and insightful profundities that spring up from time to time in this film that brought a smile to my face. But there are other moments when characters utter things so silly, unnecessary, and absurd that you have to wonder what Mamet was thinking when he wrote it. Like I said before, Mamet's true talent lies in his playwriting ability rather than his screen writing ability. Some lines that may have looked good on paper just didn't translate well to the movie. Thankfully none of the nonsense that appears in this script is terribly blatant or it would have been a much bigger issue.Heist is far from perfect but it is undoubtedly fun. It is a fun film, especially if you are into big crime flicks. There isn't a whole lot to Heist and overall it isn't that memorable. But I had a good time while watching it, so I can give it credit for entertaining me for those two hours. It is not Mamet's best effort as far as the script goes, especially because I know how much better he can do (ie. Glengarry Glen Ross, House of Games, etc.) But looking at Heist as just another film, I was at least satisfied by the end and didn't regret watching the film one bit.