TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

MBunge This movie may be titled Ordinary Decent Criminal, but it could just as easily be called The Kevin Spacey Vanity Project. I have to give Spacey some credit, though. When most actors have enough success and get enough clout to do a film like this, they do the most pretentious, self-important, artsy fartsy crap imaginable. Spacey decided to dust off the traditional British Crime genre and do a halfway decent rendition of it. However, it's only halfway decent.Michael Lynch (Kevin Spacey) is the sort of criminal who only exists in the traditional British Crime genre. While America's fictional gangsters, thugs and crooks are often charismatic, they're almost always different than normal folk. There's something about them that sets them apart from others. The traditional British Crime genre, though, presents us with criminals who are fundamentally no different than the next guy on the street. T hey may be crooks, but it's just another job. They rob banks the way dentists clean teeth or veterinarians care for sick pets. In the British Crime genre, working class hoods are just like garbage men or factory workers. The upper class thieves are like doctors or engineers. And the crime lords? They're like politicians or captains of industry. These people don't turn to crime because they're greedy or selfish or lazy or otherwise dysfunctional. It's like they went to school with everyone else and the guidance counselor just told them "You'd make a good criminal".Michael Lynch is an exceptional criminal. The sort who is not just one, but always two steps ahead of the law. Lynch, an Irishman, and his gang rob banks, welfare offices and just about anything else that catches their fancy in Dublin. They plan their crimes like football coaches planning for the big game or salesmen strategizing over their next big sales meeting. Even while Lynch is on trial for one robbery, he and his gang are committing more. And Lynch's plans are always brilliant enough that no one ever gets hurt and they always get away clean.Lynch also has a genuinely unusual family life. He's married to Christine (Linda Fiorentino), sleeping with her sister Lisa (Helen Baxendale) and he has kids by both of them. The kicker being…everybody knows about it, including Christine and Lisa. It's de facto polygamy, with Lynch having one house with Christine and another with Lisa and everyone seems perfectly fine and happy with it all.Things start to go wrong for Lynch when he runs afoul of the IRA and falls in love with stealing a 30 million dollar painting. His gang manages to nab the painting, but they can't get rid of it. It hangs around their necks and draws more attention from the police than they ever imagined. An IRA man also takes a dislike to Lynch and schemes to break up his gang and see Lynch dead or in jail. Lynch has to deal with the cops, the IRA and his own desire for fame and glory over money.This isn't a bad film. As I mentioned, it is unrealistic in the way the traditional British Crime genre is unrealistic, but if that doesn't bother you, Kevin Spacey fans will likely enjoy Ordinary Decent Criminal a good bit. Spacey's Lynch dominates the story, with the other characters getting very little if anything to do, but Spacey is very charming in the role and seems to be having a great time with it. There are several fun capers throughout the story where the twists and turns are clever without being ridiculously contrived.The whole movie, however, is awfully shallow. The polygamy thing with the sisters is never examined. The conflict between the middle class ambition of Lynch and the more working class aspirations of his gang is barely touched. Lynch's own struggle with his need to be recognized and applauded is dealt with in a perfunctory manner. The ending also gets quite stupid, asking you to believe that Irish cops have never heard of a wiretap, fingerprints or DNA; that a huge amount of cash somehow teleports out of a bank and into the hands of one of Lynch's gang; and that when Lynch comes up with a plan that totally depends on a guy getting shot in the face by random chance, the guy manages to get shot in the face by random chance.Idiotic ending aside, there's nothing aggressively wrong with Ordinary Decent Criminal. But…there's nothing all that great about it. If spending 94 minutes with Kevin Spacey, Linda Fiorentino, a very young Collin Farrell and the woman who played Emily on "Friends" sounds appealing, rent this film.By the way, was I the only one bothered by Ross and Rachel naming their baby Emma? I mean, Emma's not to close to Emily for comfort? Wouldn't that be like George W. Bush and Laura adopting a black child and naming him Barick?

morrison-dylan-fan After having heard that this was a good film from a friend of mine years ago.I have at last rented it,and while it got swept-under by the fantastic American Beauty,this is still a very good Irish/English film. The Plot:Michael Lynch(Kevin"K-Pax"Spacy)is someone who cares about his wife and kids,but he also leads another life as a leader of a gang(that includes a pre-fame Colin Farrel!)The gang are constantly getting followed by police who want to catch them doing the crimes,due to the media outlets making Michael look like a modern-day "Robin Hood!",so Michael decides to pull off the "ultumate" crime-that is to steel some very valuable works of art.But with Micales addiction to the lime-light,and with the police catching up,the crime is sure to end in bloodshed. View on the film:While the accent's in the film do make it a bit tough to fully get sucked into the film(due to knowing how the actors "really" sound.)They are able to still keep you interested in the film.Spacy gives a very good and interesting performance in that,unlike Spacys character in American Beauty,Spacy has a self-confidence and determination thats unlike most of his performances. Final view on the film.A very enjoyable English/Irish film,with a very good performance by Spacy.

harpsgrl Go see the The General, the story this movie is based on. The General is much better and acted. The ending not plausible in this film plus Kevin's accident annoying. I know they changed the names of the real people giving them "license" to mess with the facts but this is still the story of The General, a criminal who gave no second thought to murder and torture. I can't believe anyone would want to try and imply this man was noble. I found Kevin's accent distracting. He is a good mimic but keeping the Dublin accent going for an entire film was more than he could handle. One positive about the film, Kevin was impressed with the work of a mainly unknown actor named Colin Farrell and helped spread the word around the U.S. film community about him.

tomimt Who doesn't like witty, lovable criminals, who out wit every copper and other rival criminals in a heartbeat? That's a crime movie genre, which actually appeals to me: smart dialogs, funny action and so on.So, in "Ordinary Decent Criminal" we have one of the greatest living actors, Kevin Spacey, who is playing Irish mobster named Michael Lynch, and he's just such a fellow I described. There's also Colin Farrell in a small role as one of the thugs in Michael's gang. Actually rather good acting all around from all of the actors and that's the only reason this movie stays afloat, because the script is not that funny as it tries to be.Sure, it has couple of good laughs in it, but most of the jokes feel little forced.Direction is pretty decent, not worst thing ever directed, but certainly not the greatest crime movie either.Good for couple of laughs.