Readers of this blog will know of my fondness for Hustle. This film is a different take on the caper genre, but matches Hustle for wit, cleverness, casting and style. Our friends at Wikipedia provide a decent synopsis of the story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_Decent_Criminal#Plot
This is one great little film. Obviously the casting helps; Kevin Spacey, Lionda Fiorentino and Helen Baxendale (I Would) is nothing to sneeze at and having a soundtrack by Damon Albarn is no small beer either. But its the heart and the humour of the film that keep me coming back to it over and over again.
Kevin Spacey excels as the cocky ordinary decent criminal thumbing his nose at the gaurde, the courts, the IRA and the media. The heists are all pretty generic (stealing some gold bars and a painting), but they are carried off in a hilarious fashion. The cat and mouse between the cops and the robbers is entertaining and I particularly like the shift at the middle of the film as the guarde start to pile the pressure on Spacey's band of robbers in an entertaining way, rather than simply being the subject of his pranks.
This is an overlooked gem often available online for a couple of quid and well worth anyones time.
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